Inflammatory pseudotumor causing intestinal obstruction: Diagnostic and therapeutic aspects

The authors report an unusual presentation of inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT ) that caused intestinal obstruction in a 9-year-old boy, and discuss the c linicopathologic features of this rare entity with emphasis on diagnosis an d treatment. There are no specific presumptive clinical and laboratory find ings, including tumor markers and imaging techniques, that distinguish mese nteric IPT from other abdominal mass lesions. The most important diagnostic aid is to bear this entity in mind when a child presents with intestinal o bstruction associated with an abdominal mass. Radical unnecessary surgical procedures or potentially harmful therapy should be avoided, and appropriat e treatment is achieved by total excision of the lesion in most of the case s. J Pediatr Surg 33:1843-1845. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company .