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.
Case 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.