Purpose: To describe appearances at utrasonography (US) of primary epiploic appendagitis (PEA) in correlation with computed tomography (CT) findings. Evolution of epiploic appendagitis with conservative therapy.
Materials and Methods: From 2000 to 2003, clinical, US and CT diagnosis of 15 patients with primary epiploic apppendagitis, 8 male and 7 female, aged from 8 to 67 years. Examinations were perfomed with US alone (n = 10), with US and CT (n = 10). Right flank pain: 2 cases, left flank pain: 13 cases, all of them with rebound tenterness.
Results: US revealed oval echogenic masses that were small (3- 5 cm in size), noncompressible and tender.
- Position: Located along anterior ascending colon: 2 cases, 1 case located near cecum, 1 case located near hepatic colonic flexure. Located along anterior descending colon: 13 cases, 1 case located near splenic colonic flexure, 12 cases located near sigmoid colon.
- CT helped confirm the presence of inflammatory localised fatty lesion without general inflammatory process in the abdominal cavity.
- Clinical symptoms decreased after 7 – 12 days of medical treatment and disappeared completely after 2 weeks.
Conclusion: Primary epiploic appendagitis has characteristic US features, which is not difficult to diagnose by US in combination with CT and clinical findings and self-limited, auto-regressed, requires no surgery. This helps to prevent unnecessary surgical operation.