Hepatic portal venous gas: a benign finding in a patient with ulcerative colitis.

Hepatic portal vein gas (HPVG) usually occurs in conjunction with an abdominal catastrophe such as bowel infarction or necrotizing enterocolitis. We describe this finding after air contrast barium enema in a patient with stable chronic ulcerative colitis who had no symptoms, morbidity, or sequelae, and discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic implications of HPVG.