Best practice & research. Clinical gastroenterology
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Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol · Feb 2017
ReviewAcute mesenteric ischemia (Part II) - Vascular and endovascular surgical approaches.
The modern treatment of acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) requires seamless collaboration of gastrointestinal surgeons, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists. The treatment strategy is straightforward aiming at rapid restoration of blood flow to the intestine. Bowel resection is performed on demand. ⋯ Second, there are four etiologies of AMI that need to be distinguished as they differ in treatment: superior mesenteric artery embolism, mesenteric arterial occlusive disease, mesenteric venous thrombosis, and non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia. In this review, we describe the basic vascular and endovascular treatment modalities accompanied by a simple algorithm for the various situations in AMI. Furthermore, the indications for damage control and primary definitive surgery are discussed.
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Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol · Feb 2017
ReviewAcute mesenteric ischemia (part I) - Incidence, etiologies, and how to improve early diagnosis.
Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) is generally thought to be a rare disease, but in fact, it is more common cause of acute abdomen than appendicitis or ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in patients over 75 years of age. In occlusive AMI, surgical treatment without revascularization is associated with as high as 80% overall mortality. It has been shown that early diagnosis with contrast-enhanced computed tomography and revascularization can reduce the overall mortality in AMI by up to 50%. ⋯ What can we do to improve diagnostic performance, so that more patients get proper treatment? The diagnosis is a collaborative effort of emergency department surgeons, gastrointestinal and vascular surgeons, and radiologists. The etiological categorization of AMI should be practical and guide the therapy. Furthermore, the limitations of the diagnostic examinations need to be understood with special emphasis on computed tomography findings on patients with slowly progressing "acute-on-chronic" mesenteric ischemia.