[Mesenteric infarction of the small bowel in the course of portal vein thrombosis - a case report].

Portal vein thrombosis is a rare entity, usually concomitant with hepatic cirrhosis and malignancies. Spontaneous disease occurs very rarely, and it presents with venous small bowel mesenteric infarction, causing intestinal ischaemia extremely rarely. We present a patient who was operated on because of symptoms and signs of "acute abdomen" and in whom segmental ischaemia of the small bowel and mesenteric thrombosis were found intraoperatively. The correct diagnosis, mesenteric infarction of the small bowel in the course of portal vein thrombosis, was made after performing an abdominal computer tomography scan a week after surgery. The course of the treatment, complications, and data from the literature are presented about this very rare condition, which may constitute a difficult diagnostic problem for a surgeon.