Mesenteric venous thrombosis. Modern management and endoscopic diagnosis.

Mesenteric venous thrombosis has an obscure etiology, a prolonged onset of symptoms, and controversial methods of diagnosis and treatment. Eleven collected patients with pathologic confirmation of this diagnosis are presented, with one patient demonstrating the endoscopic appearance of this disease in human small bowel. Other methods of diagnosis are also reviewed. Treatment of mesenteric venous thrombosis requires resection of necrotic bowel and, we believe, anticoagulation. The role of planned "second-look" laparotomy is reviewed, but it was not necessary in those patients in whom definitive resection could be combined with intraoperative anticoagulation.