The human cytomegalovirus (CMV), a member of the herpes virus family, can cause a lifelong infection with episodes of endogenous reactivation. Almost the entire adult Korean population has been infected with CMV; they have serum CMV antibodies of
IgG
class. Reactivation is clinically silent in immunocompetent individuals. Symptomatic illness, such as pneumonitis, retinitis, hepatitis or gastroenteritis, is usually confined to immunocompromized patients. The colon, stomach and esophagus are
the
organs frequently infected with CMV in these patients. A CMV infection may also complicate an inflammatory bowel disease. CMV enteritis involving the small bowel, which makes up less than 10% of the CMV gastroenteritis cases, usually presents
with
diarrhea, bleeding and perforation, but rarely evokes obstruction. The authors experienced a case of CMV enteritis of the terminal ileum, presenting as an intestinal obstruction, which developed in an immunocompetent individual with no underlying
disease. This appears to be a world first.
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