We report on a 62-year-old female patient with melena in which polypoid lesions of the cecum were discovered endoscopically. Histological examination of mucosal biopsies revealed an inflammatory process with lots of histiocytes and so-called Michaelis-Gutmann bodies, leading to the diagnosis of a malakoplakia of the colon. No other organs were found affected. In the course of an antibiotic therapy, there was no melena detectable over a period of six months. Malakoplakia, an inflammation usually affecting the urogenital tract, is rarely found in the colon, with only 35 cases published until now. It is frequently associated with other diseases like neoplastic or inflammatory disorders, immune defect syndromes or heroin abuse. This spectrum is expanded by our report in which a long-standing alcohol abuse was found as an attendant disease.
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