Images in… BMJ Case Reports: first published as 10.1136/bcr-2015-209769 on 22 July 2015. Downloaded from Toxic colonoscopy—how investigating active inflammatory bowel disease can lead to the serious complication of toxic megacolon Shohib Tariq,1 Assad Farooq,1 Ibrar Ali,2 Haren Wijesinghe3 1University Hospital of North DESCRIPTION absent. Abdominal radiograph (figure 2)showed Midlands NHS Trust, Stafford, A 15-year-old girl presented to accident and emer- dilated bowel and CT scanning confirmed toxic mega- West Midlands, UK fi 2Heart of England Foundation gency A&E unable to cope after a week-long colon ( gures 3 and 4), although no perforation. Trust, Birmingham, West history of abdominal pain with vomiting and The patient was made nil by mouth; hydrocorti- Midlands, UK blood-streaked diarrhoea. sone, intravenous cefotaxime and metronidazole 3 University Hospital The patient had been known to the gastroenter- were started as per guidelines.1 Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth, ologist for suspected inflammatory bowel disease With pain improving the following day and radi- Birmingham, West Midlands, UK and was due for an outpatient endoscopy. ology showing improvement in dilation, diet was On examination, the patient was febrile and reintroduced once bowel sounds returned. Correspondence to tachycardic. There were no mouth ulcers or skin There is evidence to suggest colonoscopy2 and Dr Shohib Tariq, changes, however, finger clubbing was present, bowel preparation3 may have caused the exacerba-
[email protected] there was guarding and the patient was tender in tion of ulcerative colitis leading to toxic Accepted 9 July 2015 all quadrants. There were no palpable masses or megacolon.