Maternal death due to acute necrotizing colitis in homozygous sickle cell disease

The case history is described of a 21-year-old female with homozygous sickle cell disease and fatal postpartum haemorrhage from the colon. At autopsy many sickled cells were found in the arterioles of the mucosa and submucosa in combination with necrotic lesions and ulcerations of the sigmoid colon. A causal association between occlusion of blood vessels by sickled cells and the occurrence of vascular necrosis of the sigmoid colon is suspected.