Heterotopic Mesenteric Ossification after Blunt Abdominal Trauma and Multiple Surgical Operations

We present a case of a 26-year-old man with mesenteric heterotopic ossification following blunt abdominal trauma and multiple surgical operations. Computed tomography 10 months after the initial trauma demonstrated linear, branching opacities within the small bowel mesentery that had a cortical and trabecular structure indicative of mature bone. We found only 25 reports in the literature of small bowel mesentery heterotopic ossification. The significance of this non-neoplastic process is three-fold: (1) patients often present with bowel obstruction; (2) the process tends to worsen or reoccur after repeat laparotomy, and (3) rare forms of malignant neoplasms such as extraskeletal osteosarcoma may have a similar appearance.