A rare cause of lower digestive tract bleeding: angiodysplasia of the small bowel.

Angiodysplasia of the small bowel is an uncommon condition which causes lower digestive tract bleeding. The aim of this report was to clear up some of the particular problems and to stree the difficulty of diagnosis in low digestive bleeding. We report the case of a 34-year-old patient who had melena for ten years. Explorations performed, mostly endoscopy, had nor given the diagnosis. Angiodysplasia was diagnosed on selective angiogram performed during a hemorrhagic episode. The literature emphasizes the difficulty of diagnosis. Selective angiography allows topographic diagnosis and simplifies surgical cure which should be as elective as possible with seg mental enterectomy. Different studies on small bowel angiodysplasia have found the disease in both sexes at equivalent frequencies by age. Low digestive hemorrhage is a constant sign, Pathogenesis remains a question of debate : acquired or congenital histology shows an essentially submucosal vessel pastes ectasia. We emphasize the importance of selective angiography for exploring bleeding of the lower digestive tract of unknown cause.