Clinical and endoscopic characteristics analysis of 116 patients with pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis in colon

Abstract

Objective To analyze the clinical and endoscopic characteristics of pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI) in colon. Methods Data of 116 patients with colonic PCI admitted at Beijing Friendship Hospital from January 2005 to June 2018 were retrospectively collected, including age, gender, clinical manifestations, lesion size, location, and morphology. The clinical and endoscopic characteristics of colonic PCI were analyzed. Results The 116 patients included 54 males and 62 females, with age of 59.11±13.13 years (ranged, 17-91 years). Fifty cases (43.10%) had a single lesion, and 66 cases (56.90%) had multiple lesions. The detection rate of colonic PCI was 0.40‰ (1/2 524) to 2.03‰ (8/3 945). Clinical manifestations included no symptom (24.14%, 28/116), abdominal pain (18.97%, 22/116), and elevated tumor markers (17.24%, 20/116). A total of 168 lesions were found under colonoscopy, and were single or multiple submucosal hemispherical or spherical cystic eminence of different sizes with soft surface, and some had hyperemia and erosion on the mucosal surface. The size of lesions was clearly recorded in 66 cases among the 116 patients, with 1.61±0.87 cm (ranged, 0.3-5.0 cm). The diameter of lesions was 1.0-<2.0 cm in 30 cases (45.45%). The single PCI was mostly located in ascending (38.00%, 19/50) and transverse (28.00%, 14/50) colon, and multiple PCIs were mostly located in ascending (28.81%, 34/118), sigmoid (22.03%, 26/118) and descending (17.80%, 21/118) colon. Conclusion Colonic PCI is a rare disease in clinic with non-specific clinical manifestations, and colonoscopy is an effective diagnostic method. It is apt to happen in elder patients and often found in ascending colon. Key words: Colonoscopy; Diagnosis; Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis; Endoscopic characteristics