A 56-year-old man on dialysis spent a month with severe diarrhea, vomiting, and belly pain before doctors found the cause under a microscope. Tiny brownish crystals shaped like fish scales sat in ulcers in the lining of his colon. They were not a parasite or an infection. They matched a medicine he took with his meals.
The case, published September 14, 2026, in Oxford Medical Case Reports, describes sevelamer carbonate crystal-associated colitis in a Palestinian man. The authors, from Hebron University, An-Najah National University, hospitals in Hebron and a hospital in Jordan, say that to their knowledge it is the first reported case of its kind from Palestine.
