Atherosclerotic inferior mesenteric artery stenosis resulting in large intestinal hypoperfusion: a paradigm shift in the diagnosis and management of symptomatic chronic mesenteric ischemia.

Symptomatic chronic mesenteric ischemia results from intestinal hypoperfusion and is classically thought to result from involvement of two or more mesenteric arteries. The celiac artery and superior mesenteric artery are most frequently implicated in this disease process, and their involvement usually results in symptoms of small intestinal ischemia. Symptomatic chronic mesenteric ischemia resulting predominantly from inferior mesenteric artery involvement has largely been overlooked but does gives rise to its own, unique clinical presentation with symptoms resulting from large intestinal ischemia. We present four patients with atherosclerotic inferior mesenteric artery stenosis with symptomatic chronic mesenteric ischemia that have unique clinical presentations consistent with large intestinal ischemia that resolved following percutaneous endovascular treatment of the inferior mesenteric artery stenosis. These cases represent a novel approach to the diagnosis and management of this disease process and may warrant a further subclassification of chronic mesenteric ischemia into chronic small intestinal ischemia and chronic large intestinal ischemia.