Abstract
A 16 year-old male was admitted to the emergency room in our hospital, complaining of severe abdominal pain and bilious vomiting. He evacuated a strawberry jelly-like stool following a glycerin enema. Abdominal X-ray and CT scan revealed colo-colic intussusception where the presenting part appeared at the transverse colon. We tried to reduce the intussusception with a gastrographin enema, but the contrast medium failed to run into the ileum. Having regarded this treatment as inadequate, we performed an emergency operation. The intussusception was reduced, but many small and soft masses were palpable on the cecum and the ascending colon. Believing that these masses had caused intussusception, we performed an ileocecal resection, Inside of the masses cava could be seen, and a diagnosis of pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI) was made based on the macroscopic and histopathological findings. PCI is a comparatively rare disease, and it very occasionally causes intussusception. It often happens that PCI is cured by hyperbaric oxygen therapy, therefore the appropriateness of surgery needs to be judged carefully.
