Small intestine & ampulla
Benign tumors / tumor-like conditions
Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis
Author: Hanni Gulwani, M.B.B.S.
Last author update: 1 August 2012
Last staff update: 19 November 2020
Copyright: 2003-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis[TI] small bowel
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Clinical features | Case reports | Clinical images | Gross description | Gross images | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Differential diagnosisCite this page: Gulwani H. Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/smallbowelpneumatosis.html. Accessed April 19th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Submucosal gas filled cysts in GI tract
- Called mucosal pseudolipomatosis if it resembles lipomatosis
Clinical features
- Part of differential diagnosis of acute abdomen (World J Gastroenterol 2012;18:453)
- In infants, associated with necrotizing enterocolitis and may be fatal; also associated with cystic fibrosis, congenital heart defects
- In adults, either idiopathic or varied clinical settings including chemotherapy, chronic lung disease, drugs, ischemic colitis, obstruction, scleroderma (World J Gastroenterol 2011;17:4932, Arch Pathol Lab Med 2010;134:378)
- Often indolent clinical course, although radiographically resembles carcinoma
- Considered a finding, not a diagnosis
Case reports
- 6 year old girl with ulcerative colitis (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1999;123:354)
- 32 year old woman with idiopathic myointimal hyperplasia of mesenteric veins and pneumatosis intestinalis (J Crohns Colitis 2011;5:239)
- 73 year old woman with dysplasia in perforated intestinal pneumatosis (World J Gastroenterol 2009;15:4189)
Clinical images
Images hosted on other servers:
Endoscopy
Gross description
- Polypoid grape-like masses protrude through mucosa
- Soft, bluish and often sessile, "bubble wrap" crackling noise while handling the specimen
Gross images
Images hosted on other servers:
Various images
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Submucosal cysts lined by multinucleated giant cells
- Mucosa contains cryptitis, crypt abscesses, granulomas
- May also resemble lipomatosis
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
Various images
Differential diagnosis
