A Case of Chronic Colonic Pseudo-obstruction with Visceral Myopathy

ABSTRACT

Chronic colonic pseudo-obstruction is a rare disease that results in colorectal dilatation without any obstructing lesions. Colonic dilatation does not usually cause colonic wall thickening and colonic visceral myopathy with muscular hypertrophy has not been reported in Korea. A 31-year-old female patient was transferred for treatment of refractory constipation accompanied by megacolon. She had suffered from recurrent attacks of severe abdominal pain with the sensation of a mass in the left lower quadrant. An abdominal CT revealed a large luminal dilatation of the sigmoid colon where massive stool was impacted. There was no obstructing lesion or luminal dilatation of the rectum. To relieve her refractory symptoms, a total colectomy with an ileorectal anastomosis was performed. Pathologic examination of the sigmoid colon revealed that the muscle layers were dysplastic and hypertrophied, and the innervations into the muscle fibers were markedly decreased. She was discharged without any intra-abdominal symptoms.