Combined use of laparoscopy and endoscopy in diagnosing and treating Dieulafoy's vascular malformations of the stomach.

We present the case of a 70-year-old female successfully treated for a bleeding Dieulafoy's gastric lesion with a combined laparoscopic/endoscopic approach. An increasing percentage of surgery is now being performed laparoscopically and the authors feel that combined laparoscopic/endoscopic surgery offers advantages to the patient over either of these methods individually and over open surgery. This report demonstrates that a bleeding point anywhere on the gastric wall is amenable to laparoscopic intervention if the localization techniques we describe are utilized.