A clinical study of pediatric patients with intussusception

BACKGROUND Intussusception is one of the classic subjects of paediatric surgery. It is defined as telescoping of one segment of bowel into other. It is one of the most common paediatric emergencies, and an important cause of small bowel obstruction in children: if left untreated leads to fatal complications. AIM To study the clinical profile of paediatric patients with intussusception in a tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective case series study of 50 children admitted to a tertiary care Hospital, Hyderabad with a diagnosis of acute intussusception between May 2012 to April 2014 were included in the study. All children clinically suspected of having intussusception were evaluated by real time ultrasonography and those with positive findings were entered into the study. RESULTS Male preponderance was observed in our study with predominant symptoms being excessive crying/Abdominal pain 100%(50 cases), followed by vomiting and mass per abdomen 80% (40). Most of the cases were idiopathic type and 22% (11) cases were secondary to lead points most common lead points being mesenteric lymph nodes 54.5% (6) cases followed by Meckel’s diverticulum and gut associated lymphoma seen in 18.1% (2) cases..The most common type of intussusception was found to be ileo-colic with 62% (32) cases being reported.