A report of an atypical case of Degos' disease with multiple perforations of the stomach and small intestine

A 47-year old male complaining of severe abdominal pain associated with distention was admitted to our department on August 5, 1986. His first admission to our hospital was 18 days previously for leg pain and fever. He underwent emergency operation with a preoperative diagnosis of acute peritonitis due to perforation of gastric ulcer. Operative findings showed one perforation of the stomach and two of the ileum. Distal gastrectomy, enterectomy and peritoneal drainage were carried out. Resected specimen revealed six ulcers, two of them in the stomach, four in the ileum. Microscopic examination disclosed intimal proliferations of small arteries in the mucosal layer. The vessels near the ulcers were most severely involved but the same changes were also found in the subserous layer and mesentery. It was suggested that the multiple ulcers were secondary to vascular lesions identical to the gastrointestinal lesion of Degos' disease. Postoperative examinations revealed one ulcer in the jejunum and another in the descending colon. Ten months after operation he lives with no complaint on the gastrointestinal tract. Only 80 cases of Degos' disease have been reported in the western countries and 10 cases in Japan. In those atypical cases of Degos' disease without papulosis were only Manuel's and ours.