2006 Volume 48 Issue 3 Pages 329-333
A 65-years-old man was hospitalized for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The patient was diagnosed as having non-insuline dependent diabetes mellitus in 1983. Since 1997, he had received 0.6mg per day of voglibose and 5.0mg per day of glibenclamide. After taking these medicine, he complained abdominal pain and diarrhea. Various examinations were performed during this hospitalization. Colonoscopy showed numerous round polypoid lesions from the ascending colon to the sigmoid colon and his disease was diagnosed as Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI). We thought that voglibose was the cause of PCI and stopped the medication. Then his abdominal pain and diarrhea improved. When follow-up endoscopy was done at 4 month later, cystic gas-filled cysts disappeared. PCI is a rare disease forming multiple gas-filled cysts within the submucosal or subserosal layer of the intestinal wall. Recently PCI was listed as rare side effect of alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. We should consider the possibility of PCI when diabetic patients treated with alphaglucosidase inhibitors have complaints of abdominal pain and diarrhea.
