Lisa Marie Presley died of small bowel obstruction, medical examiner says

Lisa Marie Presley’s cause of death was a small bowel obstruction, according to an autopsy report obtained Thursday from the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

Presley, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, died Jan. 12 at the age of 54. 

A small bowel obstruction is a blockage of the small intestine, which can be caused by colon cancer, certain medications, adhesions in the abdomen that form after surgery and conditions that can cause inflamed intestines, such as Crohn’s disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

The medical examiner’s report concluded that Presley’s obstruction was caused by “adhesions that developed during bariatric surgery years ago. This is a known long term complication of this type of surgery.”

It’s somewhat uncommon to die from a small bowel obstruction, as people experiencing them usually have painful symptoms that would prompt a visit to a medical professional, Dr. Angelique Campen, an emergency room physician at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, told CBS News.

The autopsy noted that Presley had complained of abdominal pain on the morning of her death.

Presley, a singer-songwriter, like her father, died after she was rushed to the hospital back in January after she went into cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California.