J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  1999 Dec;10(4):692-700.

A Case of Typhlitis in a Neutropenic Patient Presented to Emergency Center

• Kim HS
• Joung YS
• Cho JP

Abstract

Typhlitis or neutropenic enterocolitis is a life-threatening, necrotizing process of the cecum whose incidence is increasing. Typhlitis presents as fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea in neutropenic patients. As the incidence of typhlitis increases, emergency physicians must be aware of this rapidly progressive and potentially fatal disease. The definitive management of typhlitis is controversial. The most prudent course for the emergency physician is to initiate aggressive medical management early in the ED. We describe a 25-year-old man with severe neutropenia presented to the emergency department with fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea that began 2days earlier. Abdominal computerized tomography(CT) demonstrated diffuse concentric thickening of the cecal wall, intramural edema, inflammatory bowel changes but no free air and abscess formation. He was recovered by early diagnosis and aggressive medical therapy. We report a case of typhlitis with literature reviews.

MeSH Terms

Abdominal Pain
Abscess
Adult
Cecum
Diarrhea
Early Diagnosis
Edema
Emergencies*
Emergency Service, Hospital
Enterocolitis, Neutropenic
Fever
Humans
Incidence
Neutropenia
Typhlitis*