SMALL-INTESTINE OBSTRUCTION AND AIDS

The acute abdomen in patients with AIDS is an increasingly recognized problem. Although many of these patients have acute presentations, pur e bowel obstruction from an AIDS-related entity is less common. Three patients with small-bowel obstruction caused by Mycobacterium avium-in tracellulare, Burkitt's lymphoma, and Kaposi's sarcoma, respectively, illustrate the clinical, radiologic, histologic, and pathologic featur es of this entity. As the survival trend of patients with AIDS increas es, the frequency of the acute abdomen caused by small-bowel obstructi on may rise as well.