Abstract
A 64-year-old woman with upper abdominal pain was admitted to our hospital. Plain computed tomography (CT) scan and colonoscopy showed advanced descending colon cancer. A followup enhanced CT scan revealed thromboembolic occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery with localized ischemic change of small intestine. Additionally, thromboses in the main right pulmonary artery, descending aorta, left femoral vein, and superior mesenteric vein were found. An emergency thrombectomy and resection of the ischemic small intestine were performed, followed by systemic anti-coagulant treatment. Although malignancy often cause venous thromboembolism by malignancy-induced abnormal coagulation and fibrinolysis, arterial events are quite rare. Furthermore, to our knowledge, a case of malignancy which developed acute thromboembolic occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery has never been reported previously in our country.
