Low-Dose Steroid Medication is Effective for Mesenteric Panniculitis: A Case Report

Kazuyuki Mizunuma, Naoki Haruta, Ryo Shinhara, Manabu Kurayoshi, Yuichiro Ushitora, Hiroshi Watanabe, Hideki Kawanishi, Keizo Sugino and Fumio Shimamoto^*

Department of Surgery, Medical Corporation Akane Tsuchiya General Hospital
Department of Pathology, School of Health Sciences, Hiroshima Women's University^*

A 33-year-old man admitted to our hospital for fever elevation and abdominal pain, was found in CT scans to have an enhanced lesion in thickened mesentery. Although the patient was suspected of having mesenteric panniculitis, laparotomy was performed to diagnose exactly. During surgery, the condition was confirmed as mesenteric panniculitis. Biopsies in swollen mesentery and lymph nodes and abdominal drainage were performed. Pathological study also showed mesenteric panniculitis. Since inflammatory reaction was not improved by administered antibiotics after operation, prednisolone (10 mg/day) was administered from the 7^th postoperative day, and rapidly improved inflammatory findings. Mesenteric panniculitis is an unspecific inflammatory disease of unknown cause, rarely induced in the mesentery. We show a case report that low-dose steroid medication is effective for mesenteric panniculitis.

Key words
mesenteric panniculitis, steroid

Reprint requests
Kazuyuki Mizunuma Department of Surgery, Medical Corporation Akane Tsuchiya General Hospital 3-30 Nakajima-cho, Naka-Ku, Hiroshima, 730-8655 JAPAN

Accepted
May 27, 2003

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