Höring E, Hingerl T, Hens K, von Gaisberg U, Kieninger G
Department of Internal Medicine, Krankenhaus Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart, Germany.
Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 1995 May;7(5):481-3.
To report the case of an unusual form of protein-losing enteropathy.
A 54-year-old patient with hypoechoic tumours resembling lipomas in the mesentery.
Following examination by ultrasound and computed tomography, the well-known intestinal and extra-intestinal forms of protein-losing enteropathy were excluded and a diagnostic laparotomy was performed. The whole mesentery was infiltrated by a large unresectable tumour. Histological examination showed that it was a sclerosing mesenteritis.
Steroid therapy dramatically improved the protein-losing enteropathy.
Pathogenically, the enteropathy may be interpreted as the result of disturbed lymphatic drainage caused by the sclerosed mesentery.
