Twenty-one cases of acute mesenteric occlusion are presented. Stress is laid on the difficulty of reaching a diagnosis in time to enable disobstruction to be carried out. In the reported series, diagnosis was established 1-8 days after the onset of symptoms. When radical surgery was performed (extensive resection occasionally coupled with right hemicolectomy), postoperative mortality was high and transit and nutritional problems brought about by the shortness of the residual gut were encountered.