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Stercoral perforation of the colon in a heroin addict
Deron J Tessier1, Eric Harris, Joseph Collins
1Department of General Surgery, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, 13400 East Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA. derontessier@hotmail.com
Background And Aims:
Stercoral perforation of the colon is rare. Narcotics are well known to produce chronic constipation resulting in stercoral perforation, however, only one case of a heroin addict developing stercoral perforation has been reported.
Patients And Methods:
We present a case of a 67 year-old man with chronic heroin use and stercoral perforation requiring sigmoidectomy and Hartmann's procedure. Computed tomography was performed prior to exploration.
Results:
This is the first case of computed tomography findings, prior to laparotomy, that have been published for stercoral perforation.