[Epidemiology and diagnostics of mesenteric ischemia].

Background: Mesenteric ischemia is a life-threatening condition with a complex etiology and diagnostics.

Objective: Etiology, incidence, symptoms, and diagnostics of acute and chronic mesenteric ischemia.

Material And Methods: Literature search via PubMed with a focus on studies on the epidemiology and diagnostics of mesenteric ischemia and analysis of existing international guidelines.

Results: The incidence of acute mesenteric ischemia is given as 0.63-12.9 per 100,000 people per year. There are no sufficiently reliable figures for chronic mesenteric ischemia, but an incidence of up to 3 per 100,000 inhabitants per year is generally assumed. The three-phase computed tomography has the highest diagnostic specificity and sensitivity.

Conclusion: In the presence of risk factors acute and chronic mesenteric ischemia should be considered as differential diagnoses in the presence of abdominal pain using three-phase computed tomography.