Pneumatosis intestinalis. Its occurrence in the immunologically compromised child.

Four immunologically compromised children, two with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who received immunosuppressive therapy, one with X-linked agammaglobulinemia, and one with chronic granulomatous disease of childhood, displayed both the pulmonary and gastrointestinal mechanisms that led to pneumatosis intestinalis. Consideration of both the basic disease and the immediate clinical circumstances that surround the development of intramural air are helpful in the determination of the significance of pneumatosis intestinalis in individual patients.