Highlights a rare but life-threatening complication of mesenteric venous thrombosis associated with oral contraceptive use in young women, requiring prompt diagnosis and anticoagulation.
Prompts consideration of mesenteric venous thrombosis in young women on oral contraceptives with acute abdomen; leaves open quantification of risk.
Small-bowel infarction resulting from mesenteric venous thrombosis is a rare but life-threatening complication to which young women taking oral contraceptives are liable. The patient characteristically presents with an "acute abdomen" after a variable prodromal period of vague abdominal pain. The correct diagnosis can be made from the macroscopic appearance at laparotomy, provided the surgeon is alert to the condition. An accurate diagnosis is important, as anticoagulation measures must be instituted early to counter the commonly associated thromboembolic phenomena.
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Milne et al. (1976) studied this question.
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