Abstract:Objective:To evaluate the diagnosis and management of acute mesenteric venous thrombosis (AMVT). Methods:A retrospective analysis was made on the clinical data of 22 patients with AMVT treated from October 1990 to September 2004. Among them, 16 cases were diagnosed before operation by CT and ultrasounography, and 6 cases during laparotomy. Sixteen patients underwent surgical operation and 6 patients received interventional thromblytic therapy (4 cases were treated by superior mesenteric artery thrombolysis with urokinase and the other 2 patients underwent percutaneous transhepatic removal of supeior mesenteric vein thrombus). Results:The 6 patients who received interventional therapy were all cured successfully. After operation, 3 patients died from toxic shock and 1 patient died from multiple organ failure in the 16 operated patients. Conclusions:The most important of all to the prognosis of AMVT is diagnosis and management in its early stage. The best management for the necrotic bowel type of AMVT is operative resection. During the operation injection of methylene blue is of some value to determine the extent of bowel necrosis. For patients with non-necrotic AMVT interventional therapy is of value.