The clinical and radiological observation of the intussusception in infancy and children

Suh, C J; Chung, H D; Kang, H K

Abstract

Intussusception is the invagination of one portion of the intestine into the contiguous distal segment. Duringinfancy and childhood it is the most common cause of acquired intestinal obstruction. This is a clinical andradiological study of 120 cases who visited our Chonnam National Universisty Hospital from Jan. 1975 to Aug. 1979.The results were summarized as follows; 1. Age, Sex and Seasonal Incidence. In 120 cases, 88.3% of the patientswere under the one year of age and peak incidence occurred from 4 to 12 month of age. In sex distribution, maleshowed definitely higher incidence than in female patients with the ratio of 2.2:1. Althought the disease occuresthe year around, spring and summer showed somewhat higher incidences. 2. The common symptoms and signs werevomiting (88.3%), bloody stool (81.7%), palpable mass(66.7%), and irritability (29.2%) in order of the frequency.3. The common x-ray findings of plain abdomen were moderate dilatation of gas filled bowels loop (62.8%),obliteration of the gas shadow in the cecum and ascending colon (50%), and soft tissue mass density (43%). 4. Themost common obstructing point found by barium enema was at the hepatic flexure. 5. The over-all reduction rate byhydrostatic barium reduction was 69.4%, and this rate was increased in the following cases; 1) the duration ofsymptoms under the 12 hours (89.2%) and between 13 to 24 hours(70%). 2) no evidence of severe small bowelobstruction. 3) in the caes of ileocecal, ileocolic or colocolic of the type of intussusception. 6. Recurrencerate was 4.2%. 7. Mortaility rate in 120 cases of intussusception was 2.5%.