Published online Dec 15, 2003. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v9.i12.2846
Revised: September 26, 2003
Accepted: October 22, 2003
Published online: December 15, 2003
Microvesicular pneumatosis intestinalis, also called “pseudolipomatosis” for resembling fatty infiltration, is characterized by the presence of small gas voids in the gastrointestinal wall, especially in mucosa. These voids are not lined with epithelia. There are few reported cases about colon, duodenum and skin. Because there is only one case report about pseudolipomatosis in the stomach, we re-evaluated 909 endoscopic biopsies taken from gastric corpus to check the presence of pseudolipomatosis. We determined pseudolipomatosis foci in 3 percent (n = 27) of biopsies. In two cases there were pseudolipomatosis foci in endoscopic biopsies having otherwise normal histologic findings, while there were pseudolipomatosis foci in endoscopic biopsies of 25 patients with gastritis. Helicobacter pylori was found in 85% of biopsies having pseudolipomatosis foci. In this study, we presented some histopathologic characteristics of pseudolipomatosis seen in gastric mucosa.