FREE PERFORATION IN CHRONIC REGIONAL ENTERITIS

Two patients with chronic regional enteritis with perforation are described, 1 of whom had free air under the diaphragm. It appears from a review of the reported cases of free perforation, that such a complication occurs more commonly in acute regional enteritis and, as in our patients, most often in the ileum. Our 2 patients are unusual in that (1) both of them showed histological changes of chronic regional enteritis, and (2) the first patient showed a pneumoperitoneum-which is very rare-seemingly being the fourth report in the literature of this condition. The occurrence of perforation in the bypassed loop of ileitis also reconfirms the advisability of resecting the pathologic segment whenever feasible. © 1969 Hoeber Medical Division • Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated.