2018 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 47-50
We herein report two cases of pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) after lung transplantation. The first case was a 50-year-old woman who underwent left single-lung transplantation due to interstitial pneumonia derived from drug injury. At her annual checkup six years after lung transplant, PI was identified on computed tomography (CT) ; however, she had reported feeling abdominal pain before the CT session. We followed up her PI because there were no symptoms of perforation or necrosis of the colon. Her symptoms disappeared within several days, and CT one year later revealed that the PI had resolved. The next case was a 20-year-old woman who underwent double-lung transplantation due to idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. She had diabetes mellitus due to several sessions of steroid pulse therapy for allograft dysfunction. We identified PI on CT five years after lung transplantation; however, she did not have any symptoms in the abdomen, so we followed up her PI with oxygen inhalation therapy as recommended by a gastroenterologist. After two months, her PI had disappeared. Recipients of lung transplant have many risk factors for PI, such as steroid therapy and diabetes mellitus. We therefore need to be alert for PI in lung transplant patients.
