Management of recurrent intussusception: nonoperative or operative reduction?

The aim of this study was to determine how to manage children with recurrence of intussusception.

Medical records of patients treated for intussusception from 1976 to 2008 at the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health were reviewed. Information on patients who developed recurrent intussusception was extracted to study patterns of recurrent attack and suitable management procedures. The statistical differences were analyzed by the χ² and the Student t test, with a P value < .05 considered significant.

During the study period, 1340 patients were treated for 1448 episodes of intussusceptions, with an average of 40 cases per year. There were 108 episodes of recurrent intussusception in 75 patients (45 males and 30 females). The overall recurrence rate was 8%. Patient age at the first episode ranged from 3 months to 12 years (average, 14.9 months). The time interval before each recurrence ranged from 1 day to 3.2 years (average, 7.8 months). The number of recurrences ranged from 1 to 5 attacks. Recurrent intussusception occurred in 35 (15.8%) of 222 children following successful hydrostatic barium enema (BE) reduction and in 55 (11.4%) of 482 after successful pneumatic or air enema (AE) reduction. There was no statistical difference between the recurrence rates after the 2 nonoperative procedures (P = .08). Recurrent intussusception developed in 14 (3.0%) of 457 patients after operative manual reduction. Recurrence was not observed after intestinal resection for initial irreducible intussusception in 175 patients. The remaining 4 recurrent episodes occurred after spontaneous reduction. Of the 108 episodes of recurrence, BE and AE reductions were successful in 25 (96.2%) of 26 attempts and in 57 (92%) of 62 attempts, respectively. Seven patients had their first episode of intussusception treated surgically. All 7 when they recurred were successfully treated with either BE or AE reduction. Operative intervention was needed in 23 episodes of recurrent intussusception; 18 were reduced manually, and 5 required intestinal resection. Overall, 7 (9.3%) of the 75 recurrences had a pathologic lead point: colonic polyps in 4 cases and Meckel diverticulum in 3 cases. There were no deaths among the 75 patients with recurrent intussusception.

Recurrent intussusception should be initially treated by nonoperative reduction. Laparotomy is needed in cases with failure of BE or AE reduction, in cases with suspicion of a pathologic lead point, and in selected cases with several episodes of recurrence. The treatment of recurrent intussusception, in general, should be similar to that of primary intussusception.