PERFORATION OF SIGMOID COLON AFTER EXTRACORPOREAL LITHOTRIPSY

Abstract

A 32-year-old white man presented with an 8 mm. renoureteral calculus on the left side. He was placed in the ventral decubitus position and underwent ESWL with 3,000, 7 kV. shock waves. The patient had symptoms of nephritic colic on the left side and on day 5 after ESWL he complained of indistinct pain in the left iliac fossa along with 6 episodes of diarrhea in 24 hours. Symptoms improved after receiving analgesics but on day 7 significant clinical worsening was characterized by signs of septicemia and an acute abdomen. An x-ray of the abdomen revealed pneumoperitoneum with the right diaphragmatic cupula and bilateral disappearance of the psoas muscle line (fig. 1). With the diagnostic hypothesis of perforative acute abdomen due to the use of antiinflammatory drugs the patient underwent laparotomy. The surgical finding was diffise pustular peritonitis and a blocked 1 cm. perforation in the distal sigmoid colon in the mesocolic margin. No diverticulum or foreign body was identified in the colon or in the cavity. In the distal urethral projection an intense organized inflammatory process was identified. The patient elected resection of the perforated intestinal segment following terminal colostomy of the sigmoid, rectal stump closure, washing of the abdominal cavity and broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy (fig. 2). On pathological examination a perforative process was observed in a segment of the sigmoid with infiltrating polymor