[Digestive burns by simultaneous oral and rectal self-administration of ingestion sulphuric acid: an unusual mode of suicide].

The authors report an unusual mode of suicide in two patients admitted to the Teaching Hospital of Yopougon. One 26-year-old woman swallowed sulphuric acid and then self-administered more of the same product rectally. She presented with abdominal pain, vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, without fever (T=37,9 degrees C). The abdomen did not appear to require surgery. Endoscopy showed erosive cesophagitis on day 5 (D5) and ulcerated bleeding inflammation of the entire colon and rectum on D26. She died on D30, during generalized convulsions. The second patient, a 31-year-old women, ingested sulphuric acid in the same way. She presented initially with diffuse abdominopelvic pains; clinical examination showed neither guarding nor contraction. Her temperature was 37,8 degrees C. Oesogastric endoscopy observed cesophagitis stage II B and III A and gastritis III A and III B. On D9, acute and generalized peritonitis was discovered, leading to surgical exploration. The patient died at the end of the operation. This unusual mode of suicide induces grave clinical presentations despite their apparent calm. The prognosis is worse because of the double localization of the lesions, the toxicity of the product, and the underestimation of its gravity.