Clinical Presentations of Salmonella Colitis on Total Colonoscopy

Ham, Jung Sik; Ryu, Chang Beom; Cheon, Gab Jin; Hong, Su Jin; Kim, Jin Oh; Cho, Joo Young; Lee, Joon Seong; Lee, Moon Sung; Shim, Chan Sup

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIM: Salmonella can cause an asymptomatic intestinal carrier state or clinical disease. The most common clinical manifestation is enterocolitis. In diagnosis of salmonellosis, total colonoscopy is not perfomed routinely, but to diagnose and treat the some of salmonellosis presented with acute massive rectal bleeding, fever, diarrhea, or abdominal pain resulted from vague cause. We evaluated colonoscopic findings of salmonella colitis, and the efficacy of the colonoscopic biopsy and tissue culture compared with conventional culture of blood, urine, and stool, retrospectively.
METHODS
Six cases were performed total colonoscopy. We analyzed the correlation between clinical onset and colonoscopic findings and compared the efficacy of conventional culture methods.
RESULTS
Colonoscopic findings were summarized as; 1. Major involved sites ere terminal ileum, cecum, and ascending colon, but in some cases, entire colon was involved. 2. Mucosal changes were nonspecific. Of variable culture methods, colonoscopic tissue culture was the most sensitive for identification of causative organisms.
CONCLUSIONS
Colonoscopic features are not useful to diagnose salmonella colitis, because the findings are similar to those in inflammatory bowel disease, and there was no correlations between colonoscopic findings and symptom onset and severity. But, it is safe and useful method to isolate the causative organism of acute infectious colitis.