Isolated polyarteritis nodosa of the large bowel: a case report.

Polyarteritis nodosa is a form of vasculitis that affects several organs. Gastrointestinal involvement is frequent, but cases in which the gastrointestinal tract is the only site of disease are rare. In this paper we report a case of a 70-year-old patient with polyarteritis nodosa restricted to the large intestine, who underwent a total colectomy. The patient had no other signs of chronic vasculitis and for this reason surgical treatment resolved the clinical symptoms.