Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics diagnosis and treatment of patients with mesenteric venous thrombosis early after operation.
Methods: A retrospective study was performed on the clinical data of 7 patients with mesenteric venous thrombosis early after operation from 1990 to 2004.
Results: Patients had main clinical manifestations of severe abdominal pain and vomiting, but abdominal signs were slight. The systemic toxic symptoms occurred in 2 cases at late course. The examination of abdominal X- ray showed intestinal obstruction of all patients. Four patients received abdominal CT- scanning, of whom 3 patients were diagnosed as mesenteric venous thrombosis. Seven patients received exploratory operation. The necrotic intestinal segments were resected. Two patients had short intestinal syndromes after operation, one of them died of serious malnutrition. Four patients who had recurrence of portal, mesenteric and iliac venous thrombosis needed a long-term therapy of warfarin and aspirin after discharge.
Conclusion: It is easy to make a mistake in diagnosis because of the lacking of characteristic clinical manifestations. Exploratory operation immediately plus anticoagulant therapy is strongly recommended.