Repeated small bowel resection in a patient with Buerger's disease and intestinal involvement.

Buerger's disease, also called thromboangiitis obliterans, is a recurrent and an uncommon vaso-occlusive inflammatory disease, which typically affects small and medium-sized arteries, veins and nerves of the upper and lower extremities. Mesenteric and multisystem involvement of two or more organs is extremely rare. Here we report the case of a 39-year-old male heavy smoker who had undergone four repetitive laparotomies and multiple small bowel resections for ischaemic involvement of Buerger's disease. He had below-the-knee amputation of the right leg and finger of the left hand because of that disease before bowel involvement. Histopathological findings revealed that the arteries and veins of the resected small intestine were occluded with organised thrombi. Inflammatory cell infiltration was recognised mainly in the intima of distal branches of mesenteric artery. These findings were compatible with previous findings in histopathological examinations of amputated extremities.