A Case of Idiopathic Mesenteric Phlebosclerosis with Transverse Colon Cancer

Abstract

A 77-year-old woman had taken a Chinese herbal medicine for 7 years. She was noted to have fecal occult blood at a routine medical examination and underwent colonoscopy. A type 2 tumor was found at the transverse colon. The mucosa in the cecum and ascending, transverse, and part of the descending colon showed a dark blue-purple discoloration. The tumor was diagnosed as a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma by histopathological examination. At first, we planned to perform only transverse colectomy. Instead, we performed right hemicolectomy because ischemic changes and luminal narrowing of the ascending colon due to idiopathic mesenteric phlebosclerosis could appear in the future. Microscopic examination of the resected specimen showed interstitial fibrosis and thickening of the venous walls in the mucosa and submucosa. We report a rare case of idiopathic mesenteric phlebosclerosis associated with colon cancer.