MESENTERIC PANNICULITIS-REPORT OF TWO CASES

Mesenteric panniculitis is a rare inflammatory process of mesenteric fat tissue with unknown etiology. Two patients with mesenteric panniculitis are presented. The first patient developed ischemic colitis and mesenteric panniculitis 5 months after descending colectomy and required a sigmoid end-colostomy after several times of non-operative therapies. The second patient presented with small intestinal obstruction with per-sistent leukocytosis resulting in endotoxin septic shock. Despite the benign clinical course and favorable outcome of this disease, careful observation is necessary, because some complications such as ischemic enteritis and septicemia can be critical. Ninety cases of meseoteric panniculitis collected from the Japanese literature. together with two cases from the author's source, are reviewed.