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PSEUDOMELANOSIS ILEI ASSOCIATED WITH INGESTION OF CHARCOAL: CASE REPORT AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Author(s) -
Kim Juhyung,
Hwang Jin Ki,
Choi Woo Seok,
Lee Beom Jae,
Park JongJae,
Kim Jae Seon,
Bak YoungTae,
Kim Insun
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
digestive endoscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.5
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1443-1661
pISSN - 0915-5635
DOI - 10.1111/j.1443-1661.2009.00919.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ingestion , melanosis , ileum , lesion , gastrointestinal tract , terminal ileum , pathology , endoscopy , small intestine , dermatology , gastroenterology , melanoma , cancer research
Melanosis or pseudomelanosis of the gastrointestinal tract refers to an accumulation of pigment deposits in the gastrointestinal mucosa. Pigmentation can affect the entire gastrointestinal tract. Melanosis of the colon is not uncommon, but black pigmentation of the small intestine is extremely rare. We report a case of pseudomelanosis of the terminal ileum in a 52‐year‐old woman who had ingested a tablespoon of charcoal powder daily for 2 years. Numerous small and medium‐sized irregular grayish black pigmentations mostly on the background of geographic light grayish discolored mucosa and some on the normal‐looking mucosa were seen on the terminal ileum. The finding was similar to a cut surface of a dragon fruit and we named the lesion ‘dragon fruit ileum’. Follow up endoscopy 10 months later revealed no significant change in the pigmentation. We could not search any English literature on this lesion. However, we could find three cases from two papers from Korea describing similar lesions after chronic charcoal ingestion and the papers were reviewed with a report of our case.