title: Acute intestinal obstruction caused by endometriosis mimicking sigmoid carcinoma.
abstract: Endometriosis is a relatively frequent disease in fertile women. The intestine is involved in 12-37% of cases. Intestinal endometriosis is usually asymptomatic and complete obstruction of the bowel lumen occurs in less than 1% of cases. We report a case of endometriosis of the sigmoid, which caused complete intestinal obstruction and mimicked carcinoma of the sigmoid colon. This case demonstrates the difficulty of establishing an accurate pre- and peroperative diagnosis and the propensity of intestinal endometriosis to mimic colon cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, University General Hospital, Herakleion, Greece.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Bree
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schoretsanitis
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Melissas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christodoulakis
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tsiftsis
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D003106:Colon / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007415:Intestinal Obstruction / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D012810:Sigmoid Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D012811:Sigmoid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome