Cyclic vomiting with metabolic acidosis

Abstract EN

Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) manifests with repetitive vomiting and is generally associated with metabolic alkalosis.

We describe a seventeen year old Bahraini female high school student with repetitive vomiting since childhood who presented with low HCO3 and low PH, which indicate metabolic acidosis instead of metabolic alkalosis.

Vomiting usually changes the acid-base balance by causing loss of chloride through the loss of HCL from the stomach.

The loss of HCL leads to an increase of bicarbonate in the extracellular fluid, which causes alkalosis.

In this case, though the patient had CVS, her bicarbonate level was low and had high anion gap acidosis.