AJR 2001; 177:1073-1081
Levy AD, Abbott RM, Rohrmann Jr. CA, Frazier AA, Kende A.
Gastrointestinal hemangiomas are uncommon benign vascular tumors that may occur anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract as single or multiple lesions. Multiple lesions are often associated with similar neoplasms in other organs, such as the liver and skin, and may also be caused by Osler-Weber-Rendu disease, Maffucci’s syndrome, Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, or the congenital blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome. Gastrointestinal bleeding is the most common clinical presentation. The bleeding may be slow and insidious or massive and life-threatening. Patients may also present with abdomonal pain, mechanical bowel obstruction, intussusception, or perforation. Gastrointestinal hemangiomas may be polypoid or diffusely infiltrating in appearance or gross pathology, giving rise to a spectrum of radiologic appearances.
Our article is based on the records of 22 patients with gastrointestinal hemangiomas accessioned into the radiologic pathology archive at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology over a 27-year period. The case material includes two esophageal hemangiomas, one gastric hemangioma, 12 hemangiomas of the small intestine, and six of the colon. In one patient, the entire abdomen was involved. Four of the six cases of patients with hemangiomas of the colon have been included in a review of colorectal hemangioma [1], and the case of the single patient with gastric hemangioma has been published as a case report [2]. The purpose of this pictorial essay is to review the imaging manifestations of gastrointestinal hemangiomas with pathologic correlation.