Small-intestine obstruction and AIDS

The acute abdomen in patients with AIDS is an increasingly recognized problem. Although many of these patients have acute presentations, pure bowel obstruction from an AIDS-related entity is less common. Three patients with small-bowel obstruction caused by Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare, Burkitt's lymphoma, and Kaposi's sarcoma, respectively, illustrate the clinical, radiologic, histologic, and pathologic features of this entity. As the survival trend of patients with AIDS increases, the frequency of the acute abdomen caused by small-bowel obstruction may rise as well.