A Case of Acute Ischemic Enteritis Caused by Polyarteritis Nodosa / 대한소화기내시경학회지

ABSTRACT

Polyarteritis nodosa is a systemic necrotizing vasculitis of the small- and medium-sized arteries with gastrointestinal involvement in more than 50% of cases at some time during the course of the disease. The gastrointestinal manifestations can be diverse and include abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, ulceration, hemorrhage, occlusion and perforation. Gut involvement is a serious prognostic factor. A 65-year-old man was referred to our department suffering from epigastric pain. A push enteroscopy revealed ischemic enteritis at the proximal small bowel and the CT scan showed a large dilation of the small bowel. His condition deteriorated rapidly and an exploratory laparotomy and total resection of the small bowel was performed. We report a rare case in which the push enteroscopy revealed acute ischemic enteritis of the small bowel and where the pathology specimen showed transmural necrosis of the involved small bowel due to vessel occlusion caused by polyarteritis nodosa.