Cocoon within an abdominal cocoon

Surgical timing for primary encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis: A case report and review of literature

BACKGROUND

Primary encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is a rare but devastating disease that causes fibrocollagenous cocoon-like encapsulation of the bowel, resulting in bowel obstruction. The pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment strategies of EPS remain unclear so far. Since most patients are diagnosed during exploratory laparotomy, for the non-surgically diagnosed patients with primary EPS, the surgical timing is also uncertain.

CASE SUMMARY

A 44-year-old female patient was referred to our center on September 6, 2021, with complaints of abdominal distention and bilious vomiting for 2 d. Physical examination revealed that the vital signs were stable, and the abdomen was slightly distended. Computerized tomography scan showed a conglomerate of multiple intestinal loops encapsulated in a thick sac-like membrane, which was surrounded by abdominal ascites. The patient was diagnosed with idiopathic EPS. Recovery was observed after abdominal paracentesis, and the patient was discharged on September 13 after the resumption of a normal diet. This case raised a question: When should an exploratory laparotomy be performed on patients who are non-surgically diagnosed with EPS. As a result, we conducted a review of the literature on the clinical manifestations, intraoperative findings, surgical methods, and therapeutic effects of EPS.

CONCLUSION

Recurrent intestinal obstructions and abdominal mass combined with the imaging of encapsulated bowel are helpful in diagnosing idiopathic EPS. Small intestinal resection should be avoided.

Abdominal cocoon in children: A case report and review of literature

BACKGROUND

Abdominal cocoon or “encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis” (EPS) is an uncommon and rare cause of intestinal obstruction. Only a few cases have been reported in paediatric patients. Typically, EPS is described as the primary form in young adolescent girls from tropical and subtropical countries because of viral peritonitis due to retrograde menstruation or a history of peritoneal dialysis. Most patients are asymptomatic or present with abdominal pain, which is likely to occur secondary to subacute bowel obstruction. Findings at imaging, such as ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, are often nonspecific. When diagnosed, EPS is characterized by total or partial encasement of the bowel within a thick fibrocollagenous membrane that envelopes the small intestine in the form of a cocoon because of chronic intraabdominal fibroinflammatory processes. The membrane forms a fibrous tissue sheet that covers, fixes, and finely constricts the gut, compromising its motility.

CASE SUMMARY

We present a case of EPS in a 12-year-old boy 8 wk after primary surgery for resection of symptomatic jejunal angiodysplasia. There was no history of peritoneal dialysis or drug intake.

CONCLUSION

In this report, we sought to highlight the diagnostic, surgical, and histopathological characteristics and review the current literature on EPS in paediatric patients.

Encapsulating Peritoneal Sclerosis: The Abdominal Cocoon

Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is a rare but serious condition that results in (a) encapsulation of bowel within a thickened fibrocollagenous peritoneal membrane and (b) recurrent episodes of bowel obstruction. Although described by various names in the literature, the preferred term is encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis because it best describes the morphologic and histologic changes in this disorder. The etiology of EPS is multifactorial, with a wide variety of implicated predisposing factors that disrupt the normal physiologic function of the peritoneal membrane-prime among these factors being long-term peritoneal dialysis and bacterial peritoneal infections, especially tuberculosis. The clinical features of EPS are usually nonspecific, and knowledge of the radiologic features is necessary to make a specific diagnosis. The findings on radiographs are usually normal. Images from small-bowel follow-through studies show the bowel loops conglomerated in a concertina-like fashion with a serpentine arrangement in a fixed U-shaped configuration. US demonstrates a "cauliflower" appearance of bowel with a narrow base, as well as a "trilaminar" appearance depicted especially with use of high-resolution US probes. CT is the imaging modality of choice and allows identification of the thickened contrast material-enhanced abnormal peritoneal membrane and the encapsulated clumped bowel loops. In addition, CT can potentially help identify the cause of EPS (omental granuloma in tuberculosis), as well as the complications of EPS (bowel obstruction). Conservative medical treatment and surgical therapy early in the course of EPS have been used for management of the condition. The purpose of this article is to review the nomenclature and etiopathogenesis of EPS, describe the multimodality imaging appearances of EPS, including differentiating its features from those of other conditions mimicking EPS, and give an overview of management options. Online DICOM image stacks are available for this article. ^©RSNA, 2018.