Pneumatosis intestinalis in the small bowel of an adult: Report of a case

We present the case of a 70-year-old man found to have pneumatosis of the s mall intestine. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan detected massive intramural air in the entire circumference of the small intestine without any venous gas. During emergency surgery, 80 cm of the small bowel was remo ved. The pathological findings of thrombi in the resected specimen thus ind icated that surgical intervention should be immediately performed in patien ts with pneumatosis throughout the small intestine. CT was useful for confi rming the presence of intramural gas in pneumatosis of the small intestine. The presence of a massive amount of intramural gas in the entire small int estine circumference on the CT findings is thus considered to be an early i ndication of bowel infarction.