["Brown bowel" syndrome--lipofuscinosis of the intestine as a cause of atonia].

We report on a 42 year old male patient having been ill with pseudo-pobstruction and gastroinstestinal atonid for 24 years. He was thought to suffer from Crohn's disease and was treated conservatively. Since the therapy proved to be insufficient, explorative laparatomie was performed and parts of the small and large intestine which were thought to be inflamed, were removed. The histologic examination revealed the deposition of a significant amount of lipofuscin in the muscularis propria. This so-called brown bowel syndrome is known to be responsible for the development of gastrointestinal atonia. It is generally believed that this syndrome is caused by a vitamin E deficiency which may occur due to malabsorption. The brown bowel syndrome is treated sympomatically, and until now only one case achieving a remission of the disease has been reported.