title: Ischaemic dilatation of the colon.
abstract: The present paper describes the presentation and management of 9 patients who developed dilatation in the colon during the course of spontaneous ischaemic colitis. The length of history varied from 16 hours to 6 weeks. The patients usually had diarrhoea and abdominal pain but no bleeding and posed a difficult diagnostic problem. At laparotomy, three distinct types of colonic dilatation were recognised. Dilatation of non-diseased colon proximal to localised ischaemic segments occurred in 2 patients, 3 patients exhibited dilatation of obviously gangrenous colon, 4 patients showed dilatation of ischaemic but possibly viable colon, yet in 1 of these, multiple sealed perforations were present. Resection of the obvious or possibly gangrenous colon was the treatment used but in the 2 patients with dilatation due to stricture, transverse colostomy alone was employed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003106:Colon / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D004108:Dilatation, Pathologic / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007511:Ischemia / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged