[Intestinal invagination. Analysis of case reports in the last 45 years]

The retrospective study analyses 219 children with intussusception, who were treated in the Dpt. of Pediatric Surgery, university of Heidelberg between 1942 and 1986. The patients were divided into three groups. The mortality of the first group (1942-1966) was 20%. Since 1966, however, no patient with intussusception was lost. Recent diagnosis advances with ultrasonography allowed early diagnosis and at the same time the complication rate dropped from 34 (group 2, 1967-1981) to 11% (group 3, 1981-1986). Simultaneously the intestinal resection rate was reduced. The developments in diagnosis and therapy during the last 45 years, based on the analyses of the three groups, are discussed in detail with the literature.