Mesenteric arterial occlusion as a vascular emergency

A case report of superior mesenteric artery occlusion

A case is reported of survival following acute superior mesenteric artery occlusion in which endarterectomy led to recovery of gut of doubtful viability and enabled a useful and significant portion of the gut to be retained.

Acute superior mesenteric artery occlusion with gangrene of the gut has shown a high mortality and few cases have been reported of a successful outcome following surgery. The interest in this case is that following surgery the patient survived and the portion of gut retained was of sufficient propor tions to maintain the patient in a satisfactory state of nutrition.

Superior mesenteric embolectomy

A 57-year-old woman with embolic occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery was treated by embolectomy. It is remarkable that it has been possible to trace only 4 previous reports of successful embolectomy in the British literature. In view of the simplicity of the techniques involved this must be due to a failure of early diagnosis, resulting principally from the lack of abdominal signs characteristic of the condition. The common clinical findings are reviewed.