Ischemic Pseudotumor of the Colon: An Insidious Form of Ischemic Colitis: Reply

We appreciate the comment of Virgilio et al. related to our article and congratulate them for the wise treatment of the described 79-year-old woman by anticipation of the presence of an ischemic pseudotumor. In fact, ischemic pseudotumor (IP) is a very rare manifestation of ischemic colitis (IC) that every gastroenterologist and GI-surgeon should be aware of. In our study, the patients with IC have been identified retrospectively by means of the histology reports of the colonoscopically gathered biopsies. Therefore, we are not able to provide reliable data with regard to the presence or absence of IP in our patients with IC. However, none of the conservatively treated patients with IC (91.8 %) developed colonic cancer in the follow-up period and none of the few patients with colonic resection exhibited IP. Furthermore, the conservative treatment of IC does not differ if IP is present or not. But we agree with the comment of Virgilio et al. that every colonic mass treated conservatively needs close follow-up investigations to document regression.