Non-Meckel's Small Bowel Diverticular Bleeding: Two Case Reports and a Review of the Literature

Left side jejunal diverticulitis: US and CT imaging findings

Small bowel jejunoileal diverticulosis is an uncommon and usually asymptomatic condition. Complications may occur such as acute diverticulitis including infection or perforation, bleeding, small bowel obstruction and volvulus. Herein we report a case of a 76 years-old woman with acute left side abdominal pain and tenderness. A clinical suspected diagnosis of colonic diverticulitis was formulated. She underwent Ultrasound that revealed a collapsed small bowel loop with a large sac-like out-pouching lesion with mixed content (fluid and pockets of air) associated to hyperechogenicity of perilesional fat. Because of the atypical US findings, the patient underwent abdominopelvic CT that confirmed that the large sac-like out-pouching was a jejunal inflamed diverticulum. The patient underwent emergency surgery. Radiologist should be aware of imaging findings of jejunoileal diverticulitis in order to achieve a prompt diagnosis.

Strangulated diverticulum: a new acute complication of small bowel diverticulosis

Complicated jejunal diverticulosis is a difficult entity to diagnose, which can cause significant morbidity and mortality. We present the case of an 88-year-old female who presented with a unique complication of small bowel diverticulosis progressing to a strangulated diverticulum requiring emergency surgery. We present the case of an 88-year-old female who presented with abdominal pain associated with a new mass on a background of perforated diverticulitis and previous laparoscopic abdominal surgeries for division of adhesions. Due to high suspicion for the mass containing necrotic bowel, the patient was taken directly to theatre for an exploratory laparotomy and was found to have ischaemic small bowel secondary to a strangulated jejunal diverticulum. When evaluating the acute abdomen consideration should be given to the diagnosis of a strangulated jejunal diverticulum causing ischaemic small bowel, with a view to expedite to emergency surgery as the primary treatment.

Small intestinal diverticula

The prevalence of small intestinal diverticula (SID) in the population is 0.5-2.3%, and in most cases they are asymptomatic. In the presence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth this results in chronic diarrhea and malabsorption. When it is complicated by diverticulitis it causes pain and other symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. Inflammatory process progression may be accompanied by bleeding, invagination, intestinal obstruction, diverticulum abscess and perforation with peritonitis development. SID include separate nosological forms such as paraphateral diverticulum and Meckel's diverticulum. In diagnosis of SID ray and endoscopic methods are crucial. The basis of small intestine diverticular disease treatment is intestinal antiseptics, antibiotics as well as surgical intervention for severe complications. Two cases are discussed, the first one confirms a possibility of development of severe malabsorption syndrome with chronic diarrhea, and the second one is a complication in a form of severe diverticulitis, abscess with perforation and peritonitis.

An unusual case of giant ileal diverticulum-A case report

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Large ileal diverticula are extremely rare and bleeding complications can result in high overall mortality.

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Small bowel diverticulosis though uncommon has to be considered during workup for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding.

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Endoscopic treatment for small bowel diverticular bleeding is an alternative approach that can be considered for high-risk patients.

Small bowel diverticulosis is rare with an incidence of 1–2% in the general population. It is an uncommon cause of gastrointestinal bleeding that ranges from obscure to overt bleeding. Large ileal diverticula are extremely rare and bleeding complications can result in high overall mortality.

A young gentleman presented with persistent per-rectal bleeding and drop in hemoglobin level. He was recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy. A computed tomography scan of the abdomen and pelvis revealed a giant ileal diverticulum. In view of on-going bleeding, he underwent double balloon enteroscopy which revealed active bleeding from an ulcer within the giant ileal diverticulum and successful hemostasis was performed with hemostatic clips.

Small bowel diverticulosis though uncommon has to be considered during workup for gastrointestinal bleeding. Endoscopic treatment is a modern approach towards small bowel diverticular bleeding that is effective and less invasive.