Non-occlusive intestinal infarction.

In a retrospective study of all post-mortem examinations and all celiotomies carried out at Glostrup Hospital in the period 1959-76, 81 patients with non-mechanical intestinal infarction were identified. Of these patients, 23 had suffered non-occlusive intestinal infarction. In 15 of the 23 patients the infarction was associated with cardiac disease and its treatment, in 2 patients it was associated with septic and haemorrhagic shock, and in 4 patients with still other diseases. Two patients were completely healthy, when struck by intestinal infarction. The course was fatal in 20 patients. It is concluded that non-occlusive intestinal infarction occurs often enough to be taken into consideration, whenever non-mechanical intestinal infarction is suspected. The treatment should be directed towards the conditions causing intestinal ischaemia.