Angiodysplasia of the colon. Clinical analysis of five cases

Angiodysplasia of the colon is recognized as a major cause of bleeding in the lower gastrointestinal tract. From January 1991 to March 1994, five cases of angiodysplasia with massive anal bleeding were admitted to National Taiwan University Hospital. These included four women and one man whose ages ranged from 57 to 73 years old. Four of the patients were diagnosed by emergency angiography which manifested as multiple vascular tufts, early filling or delay emptying mesenteric draining veins. One case was diagnosed by colonofibroscopy. There was one case whose hemorrhage was from a coexistent inflamed diverticulum rather than colonic angiodysplasia. Three patients with lesions on the right side colon received a right hemicolectomy, and the other two patients with left-sided lesions underwent segmental colonic resection. The postoperative course was smooth and there was no recurrent bleeding during follow-up for these patients.