Chronic Mesenteric Ischemia Treated by Isolated Angioplasty of the Inferior Mesenteric Artery

Excerpt

Chronic mesenteric ischemia is a rare presentation of atherosclerosis. The classical symptoms are post-prandial pain, anorexia, and weight loss, which is believed to be due to intestinal malabsorption [1]. The onset is usually insidious resulting in delayed presentation, and the symptoms are initially nonspecific and often attributed to other causes such as gallstones and peptic ulcer disease. Once these other conditions are investigated and treated, chronic mesenteric ischemia tends to be considered. The diagnosis can be confirmed by bolus-timed spiral CT or percutaneous angiography. The treatment of choice has traditionally been surgical [1], but mesenteric angioplasty offers a minimally invasive and effective form of treatment [2] with lower complication rates. We present a patient whose abdominal pain was relieved by isolated percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of an inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) stenosis and illustrate the angiographic findings before and after the procedure. …