Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis with abdominal free air in a 2-year-old girl after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

A 2-year-old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) showing a t(4;11)(q21;q23) karyotype underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) with the conditioning regimen of L-PAM (70 mg/m2/d for 3 days), busulfan (140 mg/m2/d for 2 days), and total body irradiation (12 Gy). On day 57, the patient developed pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI) when she received cyclosporin A and corticosteroids for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Because of the presence of massive abdominal free air and the suspicion of peritonitis, she underwent surgical intervention, which, however, revealed neither intestinal perforation nor peritoneal infection. She recovered from PCI in 10 days with nasogastric suction, fasting, and systemic broad-spectrum antibiotics. PCI with massive abdominal free air after BMT should be manageable by conservative therapy alone.