Enterocolic (Lymphocytic) phlebitis: A rare cause of intestinal ischemic necrosis - A series of six patients and review of the literature

Vasculitis of the gastrointestinal tract is known to occur as part of a sys temic process but also may be present in a localized form involving only th e digestive tract. We report the clinical and pathologic findings of six pa tients with intestinal ischemia and necrosis resulting from localized phleb itis associated with fresh and/or organized thrombosis of intramural mesent eric veins. None of the patients showed clinical or laboratory evidence of systemic vasculitis. In all cases the arteries were not involved in the inf lammatory process. Follow up ranged between 2 and 15 years without recurren ce necessitating reoperation. This form of intestinal phlebitis is describe d in the literature under different terms but lymphocytic phlebitis, granul omatous phlebitis, necrotizing phlebitis, and myointimal venous hyperplasia are probably morphologic variants of the same entity. We propose to unify the nomenclature and to use for this unusual clinicopathologic entity only the generic term of enterocolic (lymphocytic) phlebitis.