Primary Nonspecific Ulceration of the Small Bowel

Introduction Primary or simple ulcer of the small intestine occurring beyond the duodenum is rare. The lesion includes single ulcers within the jejunum and ileum of unknown etiology. This lesion is to be differentiated from the type of ulceration occurring in regional enteritis as shown in Table 1. About 170 cases of simple ulcer of the small intestine have been reported in the world's literature. The purpose of this paper is to report two additional cases from the Department of Surgery at Santa Clara County Hospital and briefly to review the literature. Historical Background Baille was the first to report an ulcer of the small intestine in 1805. Morrin reported 85 cases occurring before 1931.10Evert et al reviewed an additional 31 cases between 1931 and 1944,4and Morlock et al reported 32 cases from the Mayo Clinic up to 1956.9Sporadic cases have since been reported