Melanosis coli involving pericolonic lymph nodes associated with the herbal laxative Swiss Kriss: a rare and incidental finding in a patient with colonic adenocarcinoma.

Melanosis coli is a well-known condition in which macrophages filled with a lipofuscin-like pigment are found in the colonic lamina propria. The condition has been associated with the ingestion of anthracene laxatives and is believed to be caused by increased epithelial apoptosis. Although melanosis coli is a frequent finding in colonic biopsies and resection specimens, to our knowledge the presence of identical pigment in macrophages of pericolonic lymph nodes has been reported in only 4 other patients in the English literature.