You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Case Reports: Reminder of important clinical lesson
Intraoperative discovery of melanosis coli during emergent bowel resection for perforation
  1. Grant Hubbard1,
  2. Ryan Prusko1,
  3. Jordan Christopher2,
  4. Ronald Russ3 and
  5. Walter Chlysta1
  1. 1Department of Surgery, Western Reserve Hospital Partners, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA
  2. 2Lincoln Memorial University Debusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, Harrogate, Tennessee, USA
  3. 3Department of Graduate Medical Education, Western Reserve Hospital Partners, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ronald Russ; rruss{at}westernreservehospital.org

Abstract

A patient was taken to the operating room with a presumptive diagnosis of necrotic small bowel and colon. During the procedure, it was noted that she had black mucosa throughout the colon. Several factors suggested viable colonic tissue, and the decision was made to not resect the colon as originally planned. Final pathology of the specimen would later reveal melanosis coli, an ultimately benign diagnosis. Further questioning of the patient found that she had taken a herbal laxative supplement containing several components which are known to cause melanosis coli. We hope that this case report will serve as a reminder to surgeons and clinicians to remember melanosis coli as a clinical entity when confronted with blackened or darkened colonic mucosa. On review of available literature, we identified other cases in which melanosis coli was discovered intraoperatively, and we propose a number of factors to support intraoperative decision making.

  • General surgery
  • Gastrointestinal surgery
  • Drugs: gastrointestinal system
  • Unwanted effects / adverse reactions

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2022-250062

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors GH was responsible for the planning of the report, the literature review, writing and editing of the manuscript. RP was responsible for the literature review, writing and editing of the manuscript. JC was responsible for the literature review, writing and editing of the manuscript. WC was responsible for planning of the report and editing of the manuscript. RR was responsible for editing of the manuscript and submission.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.