Descending Colon Endometriosis Misdiagnosed as Diverticulitis: A Case Report

Abstract

Endometriosis is defined as the presence of ectopic endometrial tissue outside the uterus. It is a common disease in menstruating females and intestinal involvement is not uncommon. Intestinal endometriosis most commonly involves the sigmoid colon, rectum, ileum, appendix, and cecum. However, the descending colon is a rare site of intestinal endometriosis. Although computed tomography (CT) findings of bowel endometriosis have been presented in several articles, there has been no report describing the CT findings of descending colon endometriosis above the pelvic cavity. Here, we report a rare case of descending colon endometriosis located in the retroperitoneal space, in which the initial impression was acute colonic diverticulitis with a small abscess on preoperative multidetector CT.

Keywords

• endometriosis
• colon
• diverticulitis
• abdominal pain
• computed tomography