rectorrhagi

Rectorrhagia is a very frequent reason for hospital and Primary Health Care medical visits. Its main problem is that it is made up of a very heterogeneous group of patients and a correct diagnosis is difficult to make. The main diagnostic test is the colonoscopy, and in severe cases, the arteriography. When these examinations do not provide the diagnosis, small intestine disease should be suspected. In most of the cases, rectorrhagia abates spontaneously or is controlled with conservative measures, and the subsequent treatment with depend on the etiology that caused the bleeding...

A family with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome is reported, colonic involvement having been demonstrated on several affected members. Of the 50 members of the family about whom we could get informations, 21 had the characteristic cutaneous lesions (and usually had had some manifestation of the intestinal disease). Our first patient had a colonic carcinoma, and we could detect at least another colonic carcinoma in the family. A third attained member of the family was known to have died from "throat cancer". The most frequent clinical manifestations of this family patients are intussusception related abdominal crisis of colicky pain and rectorrhagy...