Angiographic demonstration of bleeding from an unusually located Meckels diverticulum

Meckels diverticulum is the most common congenital abnormality of the small intestine and bleeding is its most common complication. Preoperative diagnosis of bleeding Meckels diverticulum may be a serious challenge. We report a case of 22-year-old woman with recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding. Urgent gastroscopy and colonoscopy did not detect the source of active bleeding. Emergency superior mesenteric angiography visualized a distinct contrast medium extravasation located over the left sacro-iliac joint. Surgery revealed a mobile ileum with bleeding Meckels diverticulum localized 70 cm away from the ileocecal valve. The demonstration of left-sided contrast extravasation at SMA angiography does not exclude bleeding from Meckels diverticulum. (author)