[Multiple intestinal atresias. Report of 2 cases]

We report two new cases of multiple gastrointestinal atresias as described by Guttman and al in 1973. The clinical presentation is characteristic: the newborn presents himself with a neonatal occlusion. Plain abdominal film shows gas in a distended stomach with intraluminal calcifications. At laparotomy in both cases a diaphragm was present at the pyloric region followed by innumerable diaphragms only a few centimeters apart until the rectum in the first case, and the right colon in the second one. Reconstruction of the intestinal lumen was impossible and the babies died due to sepsis. Pathologic finding in both cases were those of numerous intraluminal diaphragm associated in the first cases with types II atresias. There was no normal epithelium from the stomach to the rectum. This strongly supports the hypothesis of a malformation of the gastrointestinal tract occurring during early fetal life. The possibility of an autosomic recessive transmission of the process was outlined by Guttman.