Acute Small Bowel Obstruction and Small Bowel Perforation as a Clinical Debut of Intestinal Endometriosis: A Report of Four Cases and Review of the Literature.

Endometriosis is a quite common pathology, however, intestinal endometriosis is a rare condition, which typically occurs with chronic symptoms. Its acute presentation is very infrequent. We herein report four cases of intestinal endometriosis, in which the clinical debut occurred acutely: two as an acute small bowel obstruction and two as a small bowel perforation. None of the cases had a preoperative diagnosis of endometriosis. The interest of these cases lies in this exceptional form of presentation, such as a surgical acute abdomen. Therefore, intestinal endometriosis should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of an acute obstructive or perforative process of the small or large bowel.