[A 64-year-old woman with perianal bleeding, chronic diarrhea and severe fecal incontinence].

Unclear perianal bleeding may cause diagnostic and therapeutic difficulty, particularly when the bleeding source cannot be detected. In this case record we report on a 64-year-old woman with systemic sclerosis and incomplete CRES(T) syndrome diagnosed more than 10 years ago with no detectable teleangiectasia/angiodysplasia at that time. During the course of the disease the initially incomplete CRES(T) syndrome developed into a complete CREST syndrome with repeated bleeding from teleangiectatic/angiodysplastic lesions of the rectum, stomach/duodenum. In addition, chronic diarrhoea with malabsorption, bacterial overgrowth and severe anal incontinence were present which all were seen as intestinal manifestations of the existing underlying disease. A complete motoric and sensoric insufficiency of the anal sphincter was found manometrically, anal endosonography with elastography revealed changes compatible with sclerosis. In the absence of a causal therapy symptomatic treatment strategies are described and discussed on the basis of existing pathophysiologic knowledge.