A 40-year-old patient with clinical manifestations of impaired general status, abdominal pain and signs of malabsorption of six months duration was diagnosed as adult celiac disease. Treatment was initiated with a gluten-free diet and there was improvement. Later, in spite of the patient's compliance with dietary treatment, he suffered two episodes of intestinal obstruction. In the first episode the symptomatology remitted with intestinal rest, parenteral feeding and steroids, but clinical manifestations persisted in spite of medical treatment so exploratory laparotomy was realized. On pathological study were found ulcers that affected the mucosa and submucosa, inflammatory infiltrate without granulomas, and partial villous atrophy in the adjacent non-ulcerated mucosa, all compatible with a nongranulomatous ulcerative enteritis. The course was torpid and the patient died in a few months.