Massive intestinal mesenteric portal vein ischemia: Percutaneous endovascular thrombolysis as minimally invasive step-up approach.

Abstract

Acute mesenteric ischemia represents a group of diseases, which lead to an abrupt interruption of blood flow to the small intestine resulting in intestinal necrosis. Its first symptoms are vague and in the majority of cases nonspecific, so the diagnostic suspicion is of the utmost importance to establish the correct diagnostic and prompt treatment. It is a complex and difficult event, that needs a multidisciplinary approach involving different specialties such as gastrointestinal and vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, and expertise from the acute care unit team. The fundamental aspect is the precocity of diagnostic based on abdominal computed angio-tomography and the immediate re-establishment of blood supply to the affected areas. In this report, we introduce a case of a patient with mesenteric venous thrombosis, who has beenundergone a percutaneous endovascular treatment (portal-mesenteric mechanical thrombectomy, besides an intravenous thrombolytic infusion), due to poor clinical response after anticoagulation approach that needed mechanical ventilation.