Acute mesenteric vascular occlusion: a review of 40 cases.

Forty patients with mesenteric vascular occlusion were observed over a ten-year period. The main clinical findings were abdominal tenderness (in 80% of the patients), abdominal pain (in 83%), guarding and rigidity (in 60%) and vomiting. At operation, twelve patients (30%) had massive gangrene of the small and large bowel, 10 (25%) of the small bowel alone, and six (15%) had subsequent gangrene of the small bowel. Atherosclerosis with thrombosis of the superior mesenteric artery was found in 70% of cases, and embolism in 17.5%. Mortality was 77.5%. Nine patients (22.5%) who underwent resection survived.