Article Text
Summary
Dieulafoy’s lesion is a dilated, aberrant, submucosal vessel that erodes the overlying epithelium without obvious ulceration. It is most commonly located in the lesser curvature of the stomach but rare occurrences in extragastric sites have also been reported. Herein, we describe a case series of three patients who presented with lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Colonoscopy revealed a caliber-persistent tortuous submucosal artery protruding into the lumen of the colon or rectum. The patients were diagnosed with Dieulafoy’s lesion and primary haemostasis was achieved with the endoscopic haemoclip application. The purpose of this review is to summarise the available data on the pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis and management of patients with Dieulafoy’s lesion of the colon and rectum.
- gastroenterology
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Footnotes
Contributors FI: designed the study, performed the literature review, drafted and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. WU: wrote the case presentations and gave the final approval for the version published. QH and HMAA: contributed to the discussion.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.