Small bowel angiodysplasia
Tuesday 06 October 2009, Branislav Kunčak, M. D.
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Small bowel angiodysplasia
Angiodysplasia is a vascular lesion. It is ectasia of the preexisting submucosal veins of the gut wall. Its cause has not been clearly established. It is speculated that angiodysplasia is a result of degeneration associated with aging. It can be an incidental finding at endoscopy without bleeding, or it can bleed (the bleeding can be either acute or chronic).
Small bowel angiodysplasia accounts for 30-40% of cases of obscure GI bleeding.
Angiodysplasia is nowadays diagnosed mostly either by enteroscopy or a capsule endoscopy.
Angiodysplasia is treated by endoscopic means (argon plasma coagulation), or with hormones (estrogens).
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