Stercoral Perforation of the Colon: Evaluation with Computed Tomography (original) (raw)

An 88-year-old woman experienced fever, chills, and severe left abdominal pain for 1 day. She had a history of chronic constipation and was bedridden. Non-enhanced abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed wall thickening of the descending colon, a 2-cm wall defect, pericolonic stranding, fecal material outside the colonic lumen, and pneumoperitoneum, and stercoral perforation of the descending colon was diagnosed preoperatively. An 83-year-old woman experienced lower abdominal tenderness and rebound pain. She had a long-term history of chronic constipation. Abdominal CT showed extraluminal air, especially around the sigmoid colon, dense mucosa (on non-enhanced CT), a 2-cm wall discontinuity of the sigmoid colon, pericolonic stranding, and extraluminal fecal material. Stercoral perforation of the sigmoid colon was diagnosed preoperatively.In both patients, stercoral perforation was confirmed during emergency surgery. The present report emphasizes the importance of an early CT diagno...