Prenatal diagnosis and postnatal resection of intraabdominal enteric duplications

The high definition provided by modern imaging techniques allows the delineation of fetal anatomy with unprecedented accuracy. The early prenatal detection of enteric duplications is possible and facilitates a prompt postnatal treatment strategy, thereby, decreasing the risk of potential complications.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients treated at our institution with a prenatally diagnosed intraabdominal enteric duplication between 2001 and 2009.

Eighteen patients were included in the series. The diagnosis was made as early as 20 weeks of gestational age and included gastric duplications (3 cases), jejunoileal duplications (11 cases), and duodenal duplications (4 cases). None of the patients had prenatal complications. Two patients had associated intestinal malrotation, whereas the remaining 16 had no other malformations. Postnatally, 14 patients had an uneventful clinical course until the time of surgery, 3 patients had complications within the first 2 weeks of life that required emergency surgery, and 1 patient who had been lost to follow-up presented with duodenal obstruction at 3 years of age. Four patients underwent laparoscopic resection.

Because intraabdominal enteric duplications can cause complications, we believe that prenatally diagnosed enteric duplications should be resected after birth.