[Sigmoid perforation during the course of cholesterol emboli simulating polyarteritis nodosa (author's transl)].

Cholesterol emboli have only recently been recognized as a pathological entity and their clinical picture is still not clearly defined. A case is reported of a patient presenting signs of a severe systemic affection with distal arteriolitis and also general and biological signs of a severe inflammatory process having the particular characteristic of apparent corticoid sensitivity. The patient died following ischemic necrosis of the sigmoid from perforation and peritonitis, also related to the presence of cholesterol emboli.