Metastatic oesophageal carcinoma presenting as small intestinal ischaemia: imaging findings

We report a patient who presented with small intestinal ischaemia due to metastatic mesenteric disease from an oesophageal carcinoma. Enteroclysis suggested the diagnosis of small intestinal ischaemia, which was found at laparotomy to be due to compression of mesenteric veins by a nodal mass at the root of the small intestinal mesentery. Although this phenomenon has been described particularly in patients with carcinoid tumours, we believe that mesenteric venous ischaemia resulting from spread to the mesentery from an extra-abdominal primary neoplasm is extremely rare.