Abstract
The patient was a 59-year-old male who underwent partial colectomy (transverse colon) and D3 lymph node dissection with a diagnosis of transverse colon cancer. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged 11 days after surgery. However, he revisited due to abdominal distension, abdominal pain, and vomiting 3 days after discharge, and was diagnosed with superior mesenteric artery syndrome. After admission, symptoms were alleviated by fasting and gastric intubation, oral feeding was resumed 17 days after admission, and no recurrence was noted thereafter. Superior mesenteric artery syndrome is considered to be caused by narrowing of the angle between the superior mesenteric artery and aorta. In this patient, we serially evaluated this angle before onset, at onset, and after the resolution of symptoms by MDCT (in axial and sagittal views) and investigated the etiological mechanism.
