Pseudolipomatosis of the Gastrointestinal Mucosa: Report of 6 cases with analysis of possible factors involved during endoscopic procedure

ABSTRACT

Pseudolipomatosis of the colonic mucosa has been recognized as a lesion featured with aggregations of gaseous spaces in the lamina propria, but its pathogenesis remains still unclear. This paper describes 6 cases of pseudolipomatosis occurring in the mucosa of stomach and large intestine, and the possible factors involved in gastrointestinal endoscopic procedure to produce gaseous entrapment in the lamina propria were analysed. All cases received either gastroscopy or colonoscpy before endoscopic biopsy. Mucosal tissues from both stomach and recto-sigmoid colon revealed multiple aggregations of small air-spaces resembling fatty infiltration in the lamina propria. Rarely were similar infiltrations within the muscularis mucosae and adjacent lymphoid follicles. Evidence for pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis or ulcerative colonic lesion was not associated, although one showed a small gastric ulcer nearby. Repeated inflations and deflations of the stomach or colon during the endoscopic procedure with miner mechanical trauma by instrument to the mucosa seem to contribute to its pathogenesis.