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Intussusception in infants--storm from a clear sky
Insights
Delayed diagnosis of intussusception in infants significantly increases surgical complications and mortality. Early presentation is crucial for better outcomes in pediatric abdominal emergencies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Gastroenterology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Intussusception is a common cause of acute abdominal conditions in infants.
- Advances in pediatric intensive care and imaging have improved detection and non-surgical treatment options.
- However, late diagnosis still leads to significant morbidity and mortality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the clinical presentation and outcomes of intussusception in pediatric patients.
- To identify factors contributing to delayed diagnosis and their impact on treatment and prognosis.
- To evaluate the rate of complications and mortality associated with intussusception.
Main Methods:
- An analytical retrospective study was conducted.
- Data from 49 patients diagnosed with intussusception and treated over 5 years were analyzed.
- Patient demographics, clinical presentation, time to diagnosis, treatment methods, and outcomes were reviewed.
Main Results:
- Most patient demographics and clinical presentations aligned with existing literature.
- A significant delay in diagnosis was observed, with 69.4% of patients presenting over 24 hours after symptom onset.
- This delay resulted in a high rate of postoperative complications (24.5%) and mortality (6.6%).
Conclusions:
- Delayed diagnosis of intussusception in infants necessitates surgical intervention and leads to increased complications.
- Timely presentation is critical to enable non-surgical management and reduce adverse outcomes.
- Healthcare providers should emphasize prompt evaluation of infants with suspected intussusception to improve patient prognosis.
Abstract:
Intussusception is one of the most common causes of acute abdominal conditions requiring surgical therapy in infants and babies. Due to the breakthroughs of pediatric intensive care and imaging methods, which may sometimes replace therapeutic methods, this condition, which used to be associated with high morbidity and mortality rates, is now more easily detected and treated immediately, even by non-surgical means. Nevertheless, there still is a high percent of cases in whom the diagnosis is set relatively late and who require laborious surgical procedures and extensive intestinal resections. These cases have high morbidity rates, the condition sometimes has a negative course and the patients die. We conducted an analytical retrospective study on a group of 49 patients diagnosed with intussusceptions, hospitalized and treated in the Pediatric Surgery Ward of the Children's Hospital of Iaşi City during 5 years. Although the demographics and clinical presentation of our patients is largely in agreement with literature data, we note that 69.4% of the patients came to the hospital 24 hours after the onset of their symptoms, which delayed diagnosis setting, ruled out non-surgical therapy and thus led to a high rate of postoperative complications (24.5%) and also to a high mortality rate (6.6%).
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