Severe gastrointestinal involvement in systemic sclerosis

Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is the most common organ system involved in systemic sclerosis (SSc). GIT involvement is mainly attributed to GIT dismobility and wide mouth diverticular. GIT involvement in SSc can be also severely debilitating and even life threatening. To our knowledge, the presence of gastrointestinal bleeding due to the presence of multiple peptic ulcers in scleroderma patients is not well described. In this case report, we describe a scleroderma patient with recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding due to multiple peptic ulcers, in which vagotomy, pyloroplasty, and cholocystectomy were performed and subcutaneous somatostatin was administered to discontinue the recurrent bleeding and stabilize her clinical condition.