Angiodysplasia of the gastrointestinal tract is thought to be one of the most common causes of lower gastrointestinal bleeding in the elderly, and, in the majority of cases, lesions are located in the cecum or ascending colon. The authors report an extremely rare case of appendicular angiodysplasia. A 76-yr-old woman was hospitalized with massive recurrent red anal bleeding. Selective superior mesenteric arteriography revealed an extravasation of contrast material from the appendicular artery, and this finding proved to be bleeding from an angiodysplasia of the appendix. An appendectomy was performed, and anal bleeding did not recur postoperatively. A review of the literature revealed this to be an extremely rare case of angiodysplasia.

Sphincter of Oddi motility was measured in 55 gallstone patients either through the sinus tract of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage or through the T tube. The influence of cholecystectomy and gastrectomy on the sphincter of Oddi was analyzed by comparing responses in patients with or without surgery to the administration of cerulein and the ingestion of dry egg yolk. When comparing cholecystectomized patients to nonsurgical subjects, cholecystectomy revealed no influence on the response to cerulein and feeding. Both groups showed relaxation of contraction waves after provocations. On the other hand, two thirds of the postgastrectomy patients showed an acceleration in the contractions of the sphincter of Oddi after provocations (one third showed no change), while all of the nongastrectomy group saw the disappearance of the wave after cerulein administration and 83% revealed complete suppression of the wave after feeding. It is suspected that this paradoxical response to CCK on the sphincter of Oddi is a lithogenic factor after gastrectomy.

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