Unusual gastrointestinal bleeding - Small intestinal venous ectasias.

Abstract

A 34-year-old man presented to our emergency department with a 6-day history of bloody stools. He had no complaints of alteration in bowel habits in the stool. He did not consume alcohol and was a non-smoker. The patient had no any previous notable medical history or family history of similar complaints. Physical examination was unremarkable. In the local hospital, laboratory studies showed a hemoglobin level of 6.0g per deciliter (normal range, 11.5 to 15.5). After blood transfusion, an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and complete colonoscopy did not reveal any bleeding lesion. In our hospital, the patient underwent abdominal contrast-enhanced CT, small intestinal venous ectasias were detected. The selective angiography was performed, but no aneurysm or arteriovenous fistula was found. The gastrointestinal tract bleeding still occurred for an unknown reason. Subsequently, single-balloon enteroscopy was carried out. By oral approach enteroscopy, obvious jejunum venous ectasias were detected.