Rossetto A, Brizzolari M, Scarpa E, Terrosu G, Bresadola V
Department of General Surgery, University Hospital of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy.
Case Rep Med. 2013;2013:564385. doi: 10.1155/2013/564385. Epub 2013 Apr 4.
Pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) is an uncommon condition and can be associated with a wide spectrum of diseases, ranging from life-threatening to innocuous conditions. We report the case of a 46-year-old women coming to our attention for an acute abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and increased inflammatory marks, with a CT showing pneumoperitoneum and pneumatosis intestinalis. The previous diagnosis was advanced neoplasia of unknown origin. Despite the surgical intervention, which excluded an ischemic colitis, the patient died in the early postoperative period. The postmortem diagnosis was carcinoma of thymus gland, and the presence of pneumatosis was put down to metastasis nodes in the pulmonary parenchima. This case demonstrates the wide spectrum of presentation of pneumatosis intestinalis, the importance of a careful radiologic evaluation beside the clinical history, since the identification of correct pathogenesis and treatment can be very difficult.
肠壁积气（PI）是一种罕见的病症，可与多种疾病相关，从危及生命的疾病到无害病症不等。我们报告了一例46岁女性患者，因急性腹痛、恶心、呕吐、便秘及炎症指标升高前来就诊，CT显示存在气腹和肠壁积气。此前的诊断为不明来源的晚期肿瘤。尽管进行了手术干预，排除了缺血性结肠炎，但患者在术后早期死亡。尸检诊断为胸腺腺癌，肠壁积气的出现归因于肺实质内的转移结节。该病例表明肠壁积气的表现形式多样，除临床病史外，仔细的影像学评估也很重要，因为确定正确的发病机制和治疗方法可能非常困难。
