Chen CP, Chao Y, Li CP, Lo WC, Wu CW, Tsay SH, Lee RC, Chang FY. Surgical resection of duodenal lymphangiectasia: A case report. World J Gastroenterol 2003; 9(12): 2880-2882 [PMID: 14669360 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v9.i12.2880]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Chung-Pin Li, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Road, Taipei, 11217, Taiwan, China. cpli@vghtpe.gov.tw
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Chih-Ping Chen, Chung-Pin Li, Wen-Ching Lo, Full-Young Chang, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, China
Yee Chao, Cancer Center, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, China
Chew-Wun Wu, Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, China
Shyh-Haw Tsay, Department of Pathology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, China
Rheun-Chuan Lee, Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Chung-Pin Li, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Road, Taipei, 11217, Taiwan, China. cpli@vghtpe.gov.tw
Telephone: +86-2-28757308 Fax: +86-2-28739318
Received: August 26, 2003 Revised: September 18, 2003 Accepted: October 12, 2003 Published online: December 15, 2003
Abstract
Intestinal lymphangiectasia, characterized by dilatation of intestinal lacteals, is rare. The major treatment for primary intestinal lymphangiectasia is dietary modification. Surgery to relieve symptoms and to clarify the etiology should be considered when medical treatment failed. This article reports a 49-year-old woman of solitary duodenal lymphangiectasia, who presented with epigastralgia and anemia. Her symptoms persisted with medical treatment. Surgery was finally performed to relieve the symptoms and to exclude the existence of underlying etiologies, with satisfactory effect. In conclusion, duodenal lymphangiectasia can present clinically as epigastralgia and chronic blood loss. Surgical resection may be resorted to relieve pain, control bleeding, and exclude underlying diseases in some patients.