CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pathology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1674469
Idiopathic Myointimal Hyperplasia of Mesenteric Veins Mimicking Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Case Report with Literature Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- 2Chongqing General Hospital, Chongqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Idiopathic myointimal hyperplasia of the mesenteric veins (IMHMV) is a rare and poorly understood disease, typically affecting the rectosigmoid colon of young, otherwise healthy men. Clinically, it is often mistaken for inflammatory bowel disease, as biopsies show ischemic mucosal changes without classic inflammatory features. Surgical resection is both diagnostic and curative, although the etiology of IMHMV remains unclear. Case presentation: We report the case of a female patient with IMHMV involving the right hemicolon, concomitant with Clostridium difficile infection. Her symptoms persisted despite targeted treatment for C. difficile. She subsequently underwent a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy, which revealed mesenteric vein occlusion due to myointimal hyperplasia, confirmed by elastin staining and desmin immunohistochemistr. Histopathological examination established the diagnosis of IMHMV. The patient recovered well postoperatively, with no recurrence observed during follow-up. Conclusion: This is the first documented case of IMHMV involving the right hemicolon and complicated by Clostridium difficile infection. In addition, we reviewed 82 previously reported cases from 1991 to 2024, highlighting the clinical, imaging, and pathological characteristics of IMHMV. Recognition of this rare entity is essential to avoid unnecessary pharmacotherapy, prevent misdiagnosis as inflammatory bowel disease, and facilitate timely surgical management.
Keywords: Idiopathic myointimal hyperplasia of mesenteric veins, Clostridium difficile infection, inflammatory bowel disease, idiopathic mesenteric phlebosclerosis, vessels with arterial-type wall thickening of uncertain significance
Received: 28 Jul 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Deng, Jiang, Yang and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xuefeng Tang, txfaty@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.