An unusual presentation of colonic duplication

Abstract

Gastrointestinal duplication is an uncommon congenital abnormality, usually diagnosed early in life; a minority may remain unsuspected until adulthood. Ileal duplications are the most common while colonic duplications are rare and remain asymptomatic and undiagnosed in most cases. The main symptoms include pain and/or abdominal distension. Rarely, duplications present with signs of acute abdomen or acute bleeding. We report about a case of a colonic cystic duplication in an adult revealed by rectal bleeding. This report illustrates the difficulties that can be encountered when establishing this rare diagnosis and emphasises that colonic duplication should be looked for in search for an aetiology of obscure colonic bleeding.