EPIPLOIC APPENDAGITIS;

Abstract

Acute epiploic appendagitis is an uncommon cause of abdominal pain that has only recently been recognized. Thediagnosis of this condition primarily relies on cross-sectional imaging and is made most often on CT, although occasionally sonography1 2- has been used . Epiploic appendages are fat- and blood vessel-containing outpouchings protruding from the serosal surface of the colon4. They appear in the fifth month of fetal life and in an adult human, the average number of epiploic appendages is approximately 50-2,3,5 100.They measure from 2-5 cm in length . Epiploic appendagitis is the inflammatory process of the epiploic appendage and hasprimary and secondary types. Primary epiploic appendagitis (PEA) is the infarction and inflammation of an appendage because of torsionor spontaneous venous thrombosis. PEA mimics acute abdominal diseases; thus, it must be distinguished from the secondary epiploic2,3 appendagitis, which is caused by neighborhood inflammatory processes such as diverticulitis, appendicitis or cholecystitis . The mostcommon computed tomographic (CT) appearance of acute epiploic appendagitis is the presence of 1.5- to 3.5-cm-diameter fat-density1 lesion with surrounding inflammatory changes abutting the anterior wall of the sigmoid colon .