[Preoperative angiographic marking of angiodysplasia of the small intestine with platinum coils].
In patients with occult lower gastrointestinal bleeding, locating of the source of hemorrhage can be quite difficult. While multiple diagnostic tests, like arteriography, enteroclysis, nuclear scans, may confirm a small bowel source of bleeding, precise localization allowing a directed, conservative surgical resection may be problematic. We describe a patient presenting with hemorrhage from an angiodysplasia in the small intestine. The preoperative use of highly selective angiographically placed platinum coils into the feeding artery allowed us to precisely locate the angiodysplasia radiographically during operation and to resect a conservative length of small intestine. We believe that preoperative bleeding site localization with platinum coils is a simple, effective tool to aid surgical resection of small bowel angiodysplastic lesions.