Importance of a medical treatment in mesenteric vein thrombosis (MVT).

Mesenteric vein thrombosis (MVT) and particularly superior mesenteric vein thrombosis (SMVT) can induce 5 to 15 percent of mesenteric and intestinal infarctions in a small and large bowels. The thrombotic process can be idiopathic or consecutive to inherited or acquired thrombophilic states. The clinical diagnosis of this event remains difficult and requires always specific imaging investigation to treat as soon as possible. Its evolution and mortality rate are quite different than these observed in arterial mesenteric ischemic accident. Medical treatment with thrombolytic, anticoagulant, antiplatelet and antispasmodic agents, initiated promptly after precocious diagnosis is able not only to prevent surgical procedure but also to reduce significantly the mortality and recurrence rate of this venous thrombotic event.