Non-occlusive ischaemic enteritis

Non-occlusive infarction of the intestine without any associated medical disorder responsible for prolonged hypotension, is a rare clinical entity. A retrospective analysis of 46 cases revealed that the disease occurred predominantly in young, healthy, male patients. The classical presentation was of abdominal pain and persistent tachycardia out of proportion to the abdominal signs of distension, mild tenderness and reduced bowel sounds. The presenting features were of peritonitis due to perforation (63%) and intestinal obstruction (37%). A preoperative diagnosis was suspected only in six cases. Operative findings revealed that the bowel was infarcted without involvement of the mesenteric vessels, which were pulsatile up to the bowel wall. The characteristic findings of the disease, which mainly affected the jejunum (69.6%), were: (i) infarcted area of the bowel surrounded by skip lesions of purple, constriction bands; (ii) multiple small perforations in a paper-thin bowel: or (iii) a long linear perforation. Histologically, ischaemic changes were found to affect the mucosa and submucosa beyond the macroscopic limits. Mortality was high (19.6%).