Abstract
A 73-year-old woman had undergone a sigmoidectomy for her sigmoid colon cancer. On day 15 of the operation, postoperative ileus sign with palpable hard mass on her left middle abdomen was appeared, and abdominal CT scan revealed the mesenteric wall thickness around the jejunum. She was diagnosed as postoperative intestinal obstruction and given metoclopramide and erythromycin under nasogastric tube drainage. However, her complaints did not show any improvement and re-diagnosed as mesenteric panniculitis due to increasing of the palpable hard mass. Therefore, dexamethasone (8mg/day) was administered intravenously from on day 24, and showed rapid improvement. Also, she was able to start oral intake from on day 29 and discharged on day 41. As a conclusion, in case of intestinal obstruction relatively soon after operation might be show significant improvement following steroid administration and could avoid unnecessary surgery.
