METASTATIC ESOPHAGEAL-CARCINOMA PRESENTING AS SMALL-INTESTINAL ISCHEMIA - IMAGING FINDINGS

We report a patient who presented with small intestinal ischaemia due to metastatic mesenteric disease from an oesophageal carcinoma. Entero clysis suggested the diagnosis of small intestinal ischaemia, which wa s found at laparotomy to be due to compression of mesenteric veins by a nodal mass at the root of the small intestinal mesentery. Although t his phenomenon has been described particularly in patients with carcin oid tumours, we believe that mesenteric venous ischaemia resulting fro m spread to the mesentery from an extra-abdominal primary neoplasm is extremely rare.