Apple peel deformity of the small bowel without atresia in a congenital mesenteric defect.

Congenital mesenteric defects are rare causes of bowel obstruction. Even rarer are mesenteric defects with an apple peel type of deformity, probably described definitively only once previously. We present a case of a 3 year old boy who presented with a septic-like picture of severe metabolic acidosis and lethargy from a bowel obstruction with bowel ischemia. At laparotomy he was found to have bowel infarction due to herniation through a congenital mesenteric defect with an apple peel type of deformity of the bowel without bowel atresia.