Meckel's Diverticulum in Crohn's Disease Revisited: A Case of Meckel's Diverticulitis in a Patient with Stricturing Crohn's Disease.

According to anecdotal reports in literature, encountering Meckel's diverticulum in a patient with Crohn's disease is not uncommon, but differentiating between the overlapping complications of Mickel's diverticulum and the natural manifestations of Crohn's disease can be challenging and may impact lifelong therapy. In this report, we present a case of Meckel's diverticulitis in a patient with stricturing ileocolonic Crohn's disease. A 29-year-old male has been suffering from recurrent bouts of abdominal pain and diarrhea which were initially thought to be due to recurrent flares of Crohn's disease. The patient was started on different medical regimens to control his disease, but complete remission was not achieved. He was found to have an inflamed Meckel's diverticulum during laparotomy with sections of transmural inflammation extending into the diverticulum with absence of heterotopic mucosa. Although Meckel's diverticulum and Crohn's disease involve separate disease processes and different pathogenesis, several hypotheses to explain a correlation have been suggested. We believe it is important to consider the presence of an inflamed Meckel's diverticulum in the differential diagnosis for patients with refractory Crohn's disease who do not have an adequate response to medical therapy.