The patient's abdomen was relatively soft, minimally distended.  Exploration through supraumbilical transverse incision immediately revealed a large amount of chylous ascites upon entering into the peritoneal cavity.  What we found which explains the chronic chylous ascites and chylothorax was a diffuse lymphangiectatic picture involving the small bowel mesentery approximately two thirds to three quarters of the distal small bowel including all of the ileum, the cecum, and the portion of the ascending colon.  It appeared that any attempt to resect this area would have been met with failure because of the extensive lymphatic dilatation all the way down towards the root of the supramesenteric artery.  There was about one quarter to one third of the jejunum that did not appear to be grossly involved, but I did not think that resection of three quarters of the patient's small bowel would be viable surgical option.  Instead, we opted to close his abdomen and refer for potential small intestine transplantation procedure in the future if he is a candidate for that.