Colonic perforation after short-term use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs: report of two cases

Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs are widely used for acute and chronic pain, but they may have serious side effects such as impairment of renal function, asthma, erosions of the mucosa in the gastrointestinal tract, colonic and intestinal strictures, and gastrointestinal tract bleeding. Although the upper gastrointestinal tract disturbances caused by nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs are well known, their side effects in the lower gastrointestinal tract are not clearly defined. There are a limited number of articles and case reports about the latter in the literature. We report two cases of colonic perforation due to short-term use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs in this study. Colonic perforation should be considered as one of the possible diagnoses in patients with acute abdominal pain and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug use should be considered as a possible cause of colonic perforation if other possibilities are excluded.