Abstract

OCAMPO, José Mauricio; REYES-ORTIZ, Carlos A.  and  RENGIFO, Alejandro. Chronic mesenteric ischemia in an elderly woman with dementia: a diagnostic challenge. rev. colomb. cir. [online]. 2017, vol.32, n.3, pp.229-235. ISSN 2011-7582.  https://doi.org/10.30944/20117582.29.

Abdominal pain is a common cause of visit to the emergency room and the elderly population is prone to present this situation. In this group of patients the difficulty lies in its particular features, like multiple comorbidities and multiple medications, cognitive impairment and poorly informed caregivers, a situations that favors multiple consultations leading to inaccurate and delayed diagnoses. A cause of abdominal pain in the elderly includes vascular catastrophes, such as mesenteric angina, an infrequent disease associated high mortality because diagnosis and treatment are delayed by virtue of the atypical presentation in this population. We report the case of an elderly female with history of vascular dementia who consulted for chronic abdominal pain that was diagnosed as chronic mesenteric angina.

Keywords : Aged; health of the elderly; dementia; vascular; abdominal pain; mesenteric ischemia; mesenteric vascular occlusion.

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