Mycobacterium genavense specific mesenteritic syndrome in HIV-infected patients: a new entity of retractile mesenteritis?

Abdominal mesenteritis is a rare and poorly understood gastroenterological disease. Here, we report on two identical cases of Mycobacterium genavense associated retractile mesenteritis in HIV-positive patients. A literature search retrieved only few small retrospective studies, which characterize the clinical course of this seldom infection. We propose a pathogen-specific syndrome of retractile mesenteritis in HIV-positive patients linked to Mycobacterium genavense infection on the basis of our clinical observation and literature meta-analysis with duodenal wall thickening, central mesenterial mass and vascular complications.