[Digestive arterial obstructive diseases in three young women]

The authors report three cases of severe intestinal ischaemia occurring in young women (age 29-44), all of them being smokers. In all cases, intestinal ischaemia was recognized lately and lead to death within two years. The occlusive arterial lesions concerned nearly exclusively the intestinal arteries. Microscopic lesions were heterogeneous and non-specific. In a case, an occlusive intimal fibrosis was noted; in another case, fibrosis of the media and the adventitia was observed; and in the last case, the lesions were suggestive of thromboangiitis obliterans. The authors advocate for the systematic recording of cases of intestinal ischaemia in young women, in order to identify the risk factors and pathogenic features of this rare condition.