CASE 24
A mother rushed her 2-year-old son to the emergency department. She had earlier changed his diaper before bedtime and noticed that his stool and diaper were colored with bright red blood. The doctor asked her if she had previously noticed anything unusual about her son’s soiled diaper. She said, “This was the first time I noticed the blood. Last week one of his diapers contained black-appearing stool, but I did not think that there was anything wrong at the time.” Lab results showed that hematocrit and hemoglobin were on the low end of normal. A technetium (Tc 99m)-pertechnetate scan showed a hot spot along the boy’s ileum (Fig. 3-36). He was diagnosed with Meckel’s (ileal) diverticulum. The lesion was surgically resected.
FIGURE 3-36 Tc 99m-pertechnetate scintigraphy demonstrating heterotopic gastric mucosa in a Meckel’s diverticulum.
(Towsend C et al.: Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, 17e. WB Saunders, 2004. Fig. 46-45. Courtesy of Melvyn H. Schreiber, M.D., The University of Texas Medical Branch.)
