Vol. 36 No. 3 (2023)

Winners of the Iatreia Medical Journal's First Photography and Medical Illustration Contest

Title of the photograph: Spontaneous Pneumoperitoneum Secondary to Intestinal Cystic Pneumatosis

Description: A 40-year-old woman with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) for a year and a half, presenting to the emergency department with visceral abdominal pain of two weeks' duration. She underwent a contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan, which revealed gas accumulation in the greater omentum and subserosal layer of the small intestine and colon, as well as secondary pneumoperitoneum in the coronal plane (Figure A). Due to the worsening of her clinical condition, diagnostic and therapeutic laparoscopy was performed, documenting multiple thin-walled air-filled cysts (cystic pneumatosis) in the colon and small intestine, without perforation of hollow viscera (Figure B). Finally, conservative medical management with parenteral steroid pulses was chosen, leading to an acceptable medical response over time, without additional surgical interventions.

Authors: Milena Alcázar-Paternina, Tatiana Suárez-Poveda, Vanessa García-Gómez, Julián Rondón-Carvajal