Intestinal Malakoplakia in Children

Objective: Malakoplakia is a rare inflammatory disease, related to enterobacterial infection in the context of a disorder of cell-mediated immunity. Malakoplakia is exceptional in children and usually involves the gastrointestinal tract. The diagnosis is exclusively based on histological analysis.Cases Presentation: In this paper we have reported 3 children with intestinal malakoplakia which were enrolled during a period of 6 years between 2001 to 2006 at Children s Medical Center. Two were male, and one female. The main clinical manifestations were: chronic bloody and mucosal diarrhea, abdominal pain and polypoid masses detected by diagnostic colonoscopy. Histological diagnosis proved to be definite in these cases. The response to drug treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamthoxazole in all three patients was good.Conclusion: The presence of intestinal malakoplakia must be ruled out in every child having chronic bloody mucosal diarrhea.