Primary Mesenteric Venous Thrombosis

Abstract

Thrombosis within mesenteric veins is often associated with other primary abdominal pathology, such as suppurative disease, volvulus, strangulated hernia, congestive splenomegalia, neoplastic disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and trauma.* Mesenteric venous thrombosis which appears to be primary and without known cause, while less frequent, also occurs. In a postmortem study of 99 patients with mesenteric venous occlusion due to thrombosis by Johnson and Baggenstoss,¹there were 8 cases in which no etiologic factor was evident, but these cases were not discussed in detail. In 1950, Berry and Bougas²presented 13 instances of primary mesenteric venous thrombosis in 12 patients with 4 survivals, 1 with two episodes. The latter article is distinctive in that mesenteric venous thrombosis is discussed in pure form, which adds emphasis to Warren and Eberhard's³suggestion that mesenteric venous thrombosis is a distinct entity separate from mesenteric arterial thrombosis. There has developed a large