A case of "wandering spleen" associated with recurrent pancreatitis and diagnosed with computed tomography (CT), is reported. The entity was also associated with a rotated, distended stomach, gastric outlet obstruction secondary to extrinsic compression of the duodenum, and partial small bowel obstruction secondary to extrinsic compression of a mobile, distended ...

A case of jaundice due to obstruction of Roux en Y-limb following hepatectomy for a hilar cholangiocarcinoma is presented. Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage improved the jaundice but promoted disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Our limited experience suggested that afferent loops should be drained directly to prevent reflux of enteric contents into the ...

We report a case of eosinophilic enteritis associated with an ill-defined connective tissue disorder. The case was complicated by intestinal perforation and managed successfully without surgical intervention. No peripheral blood eosinophilia was present. Histologic examination of an intestinal biopsy revealed bands of eosinophils and mast cells at the base of ...

We report herein the rare case of a 26-year-old woman who developed a small-bowel obstruction caused by a medication "bezoar" or enterolith, following the long-term ingestion of magnesium oxide cathartics for constipation. Medication bezoars resulting from laxatives or cathartics have rarely been reported and we were only able to find ...

Paraduodenal hernia is a rare congenital internal hernia which arises from an error of rotation of the midgut with entrapment of the small intestine beneath the developing colon. It is important as it usually presents as intestinal obstruction, and before laparotomy is often misdiagnosed. Mortality increases significantly with delays in ...

Ventriculo-cisternostomy is an established procedure for the treatment of noncommunicating hydrocephalus, if the underlying pathology cannot be removed. In cases in which the foramina of Monro and the proximal part of the third ventricle are obstructed, it is not possible to make a communication between the internal and external CSF-spaces ...

Obturation of the small bowel is an uncommon but important cause of small bowel obstruction. There are a great number of substances that may impact at the narrow portions of the small bowel. More than one object may be present in the alimentary tract and should be actively sought. Certain ...

Acquired nasopharyngeal obstruction is a rare lesion today. Formerly it was the result of infections, but today it is more commonly seen as an unusual complication of surgical trauma. This article reports the first case, as we know it from the international literature, of nasopharyngeal obstruction which cannot be attributed ...

Twenty-six patients showing peritonitis due to nontraumatic acute abdomen were submitted to ostomy. Mean age was 51 years (range 25-83), being 13 males and 13 females. Bowel obstruction (BO) was the most frequent cause of peritonitis (11 cases), followed by intestinal perforation (IP) (8 cases), acute mesenteric infarction (AMI) (5 ...

Dieulafoy reported three cases of massive gastric hemorrhage due to a dilated submucosal artery in 1898, and since then, more than 100 cases of this gastric vascular malformation have been reported in the literature. These same pathologic lesions are even a rarer occurrence in the small bowel. This article reports ...

Phytobezoars are an unusual cause of small bowel obstruction. We report a case of small bowel obstruction due to phytobezoar in a 63 year-old female patient who had undergone gastric surgery (truncal vagotomy with pyloroplasty) for duodenal ulcer disease complicated by gastric outlet obstruction 10 years ago. We diagnosed this ...

Epiglottic prolapse during inspiration is an unusual cause of upper airway obstruction. We present a case of a previously fit, 73-year-old, male with upper airway obstruction secondary to a floppy epiglottis. We describe a simple method of treatment without the need for partial or total excision of the epiglottis or ...

Fungal contamination of tissue expanders has not previously been reported. There are, however, reports of fungi in association with inflatable breast prostheses. Colonisation of a tissue expander with Aspergillus niger resulting in mechanical obstruction of the device is described. The possible modes of inoculation and survival of the organism within ...

Oculopharyngodistal myopathy is characterized by the adult onset of ptosis, external ophthalmoplegia, dysphagia, and distal weakness. Although dysphagia is common, other gastrointestinal involvement has not been described. We report a case with childhood onset who developed chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. Other myopathies associated with ophthalmoplegia and intestinal pseudo-obstruction such as mitochondrial ...

Modern dental care and use of antibiotics for oral infections have made Ludwig's angina rare. To avoid acute airway obstruction, emergency physicians must be able to rapidly recognize and treat this condition. A typical case of Ludwig's angina is presented, followed by a review of clinical findings and therapeutic modalities. ...

We present a case of meconium peritonitis which was associated with a short bowel and complicated by progressive bowel distension and difficulty in making a definitive diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. Treatment was by bowel resection and an ileostomy (and later bowel anastomosis), followed by parenteral nutrition which was complicated by ...

We report the case of an 85-year-old woman who developed diarrhea and bacteremia caused by Clostridium difficile after a prolonged hospitalization. C. difficile is a major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea but only rarely has been reported to cause extraintestinal infection. Isolation of C. difficile from a wide range of specimens ...

Abdominal cocoon is a rare disease of the peritoneum and almost invariably presents as an acute or subacute intestinal obstruction with or without a mass. The etiology of this disease is largely unknown and abdominal cocoon of unknown etiology has been limited to the tropical and subtropical zones and primarily ...

We report three cases of inferior vena cava (IVC) obstruction due to metastatic liver disease treated with a self-expanding Wallstent endoprosthesis (Schneider SA, Zurich, Switzerland). All three patients experienced symptomatic relief during their remaining few weeks of life. The Wallstent is effective and easy to deploy, and should be considered ...

Clinical manifestations of BPH include the symptoms, signs, and sequelae of urinary obstruction caused by the abnormal growth of non-malignant nodules that arise in a small region around the proximal segment of the prostatic urethra. Although the pathologic diagnostic criteria are relatively specific, clinical diagnostic criteria are much less specific, ...

Bilateral obstructive uropathy is increasingly diagnosed in early pregnancy by ultrasound examination. Termination of pregnancy presented an opportunity to study uropathy in nine cases between 18 and 24 weeks of gestation. En bloc dissection of the urinary tract and subserial sectioning of the urethra revealed obstruction at the level of ...

Pachyonychia congenita is a genetic syndrome of epithelial dysplasia. In infants and young children, laryngeal involvement can present a life threatening complication: obstruction of the patient's airway due to leukokeratosis can lead to severe respiratory distress. This report concentrates on the diagnosis and successful microsurgical management of laryngeal obstruction in ...

We report a case of upper airway obstruction as a result of delayed massive lingual swelling following routine cleft palate repair in an otherwise healthy 12-month-old girl. We believe that ischaemia and venous congestion were the causes of macroglossia, after prolonged use of the Digman Dott tongue retractor. In any ...

The existence of skip areas in a subset of patients with long-segment Hirschsprung's disease (LSHD) is a rare phenomenon that poses practical and theoretical challenges. In this paper, three new cases are described and compared with preceding reports in the medical literature. In addition, an analogous distribution of ganglion cell ...

We present a unique case of a 63-year-old male patient with a squamous cell carcinoma of right upper lobe with paratracheal lymphadenopathy and symptoms of superior vena caval obstruction treated by radiotherapy, presented seven months later with symptoms of gastric outlet obstruction. Upper GI endoscopy and barium studies confirmed the ...

The majority of cases of per rectal haemorrhage (PRH) are due to colorectal causes within the diagnostic reach of the colonoscope. However a few cases are from the small bowel which may pose difficulty and delay in diagnosis. We reviewed 1489 patients with PRH from 1989 to 1993 and identified ...

Four cases of adult intestinal intussusception at four different locations (two ileocolic type, two colocolic type involving the transverse and the rectosigmoid colon) are reported. The most beneficial diagnostic procedures were emergency contrast studies of the colon or computed tomogram of the abdomen. Three cases were associated with primary malignancy. ...

A chronic clinical course for intussusception of the bowel in children is an unusual, but well recognized phenomenon. We report a case of a young child whose symptoms of vomiting and abdominal pains continued for over a month before radiological investigation made the diagnosis of ileocolic intussusception which was then ...

The authors present a case of appendiceal intussusception, a rare finding that can be associated with appendiceal neoplasms. A 74-year-old woman with right lower quadrant abdominal pain was found to have an appendiceal intussusception associated with a villous adenocarcinoma and was managed with a laparoscopic assisted right hemicolectomy. This case ...

A case of a 57-year-old farmer with a rare type of choledochal cyst (choledochocele; Alonso-Lej's type III) is described. The patient was admitted because of obstructive jaundice and acute biliary infection. Abdominal computed tomography scan showed a cystic lesion in the head of the pancreas, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography disclosed ...

The authors describe a case of a large subtentorial supracollicular diverticulum of the third ventricle associated with a cavernous angioma in its wall in a 6-year-old girl who presented with developmental delay and obstructive hydrocephalus. This is the first case in which such association has been diagnosed and successfully treated. ...

It is well recognized that cocaine use can be associated with serious cardiovascular complications, including myocardial infarction. Several case reports have recently linked the use of cocaine with ischemic events of the small bowel and colon. We report a case of ischemic colitis complicated by perforation in a 47-yr-old diabetic ...

Intussusception in the adult is unusual, and its etiology is mostly neoplastic. In most cases of intussusception, a polypoid tumor located in the terminal ileum invaginates within the cecum. We described an unusual case of adult intussusception associated with Salmonella typhimurium enterocolitis. Preoperative diagnosis of intussusception in the ileocecal region ...

Mallory-Weiss tears are a common cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding and are often associated with vomiting from heavy alcohol ingestion. Other causes of severe emesis can induce a Mallory-Weiss tear, and it may be important to diagnose these conditions so that appropriate therapy can be instituted. We report an unusual ...

Twenty-five cases of upper airway obstruction (UAO) of different diseases and ten normal healthy controls were studied by deriving parameters from raw data on Gould System-21 Pulmonary Work station. All the obstructive lesions were confirmed under direct visualisation by fibreoptic bronchoscopy or indirect laryngoscopy. It was observed that FEF 50%/FIF ...

Clinically significant ureteral obstruction caused by the inflammatory complications of severe pancreatitis is rare with only eight previously reported cases. We present two additional cases and review the world literature. Clinically significant ureteral obstruction can affect either or both ureters and present simultaneously with an episode of pancreatitis or months ...

A case of primary intestinal angiosarcoma in a 59-yr-old man is reported. The patient had recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding with normal upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopies, technetium-99m-labeled erythrocyte scan, and angiography. Barium small bowel series and abdominal computerized tomography showed an ileal mass. Pathological examination was consistent with hemangiosarcoma with both ...

In the past 20 years, several cases have been reported describing an upper airway obstruction reportedly caused by psychological factors. This paper reviews 48 reported cases of "psychogenic stridor." Patients with psychogenic stridor usually present to primary care physicians with symptoms of asthma or stridor unresponsive to conventional treatments. Of ...

Two rare but life-threatening complications of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) are reported: small bowel perforation and obstruction. Both resulted from impaction of the PEG end-piece after separation at skin level. Review of the literature revealed very few complications from intestinal passage of PEG end-pieces. The free intragastric PEG end-piece routinely ...

The clinicopathologic findings in eight Mexican patients with immunoproliferative small intestinal disease (IPSID) are analyzed. Four of these cases have been previously reported and the remainder were found in a retrospective review of 42 lymphoproliferative disorders of the small bowel (9.5% of the cases at our institution). There were six ...

The case of a 5-year-old girl, complaining of left abdominal and flank pain, is reported. The excretory urogram and retrograde pyelography showed an obstruction located at the left upper ureter with hydronephrosis. Exploration revealed a small ureteral polyp obstructing the lumen. The polyp along with the short segment of the ...

Giant hydronephrosis is a rare condition, defined in the adult as a kidney containing more than 1 l of fluid. It is usually secondary to pelvi-ureteric junction obstruction. We describe a case where giant hydronephrosis caused contralateral ureteric obstruction. The radiological findings are described and the literature is reviewed.

Thirty patients with amyloidosis of the small intestine were studied to determine the correlations between the chemical types of amyloid protein and endoscopic, histologic, or clinical features. Endoscopic examinations of the jejunum revealed various findings such as a fine granular appearance, erosions and mucosal friability, thickening of the valvulae conniventes, ...

A case of a patient who developed an intestinal perforation secondary to a charcoal stercolith is reviewed. The case involves a young female on methadone maintenance who received multiple-dose charcoal therapy for an amitriptyline ingestion. Peritoneal signs developed several days after admission, and an exploratory laparotomy was done. A perforation ...

We report a case of ileal metastasis from a clinically evident bronchial carcinoma with an unusual symptomatology due to intestinal obstruction. Only 25 cases of ileal metastasis have been previously reported in the literature in which the diagnosis was made due to the presence of abdominal symptoms related to intestinal ...

A 52-year-old woman was presented with intermittent abdominal pain and vomiting for 10 days. Abdominal CT scan disclosed a dilated small bowel loop with a round solid mass in the right anterior supravesical space. The clinical impression was intussusception caused by small bowel tumor. She underwent an exploratory laparotomy. The ...

We report a rare case of human intestinal capillariasis in a young Colombian man who presented with abdominal pain and mild, self-limited diarrhea. Capillaria eggs were visualized in the feces, and treatment with mebendazole (200 mg/d for 3 weeks) resulted in clinical and parasitological cure. To our knowledge, this is ...

Intestinal pseudo-obstruction is defined as a syndrome in which there are signs and symptoms of intestinal obstruction without an actual obstructing lesion. In many cases it is associated with other disease entities but may be idiopathic. We report a case associated with partial malrotation of the gut which has not ...

A case is described in which inspissated barium was retained in the colon for 16 months before causing large bowel obstruction. To our knowledge this is the first case described in which the time interval between barium ingestion and the onset of symptoms was more than a few weeks. Scybalum ...

Duodenal diverticulosis is not a rare condition. Usually of little clinical significance, it can produce a variety of disorders such as malabsorption, hemorrhage, diverticulitis, and obstruction. The rarest complication appears to be enterolith formation and obstruction. The case presented is a 70-year-old woman with the chief complaints of intermittent abdominal ...