Síndrome de obstrucción intestinal distal en pacientes adultos con fibrosis quística: Casos clínicos / Distal intestinal obstruction syndrome: Report of two cases with cystic fibrosis

Distal Intestinal Obstruction Syndrome (DIOS) has a 16 percent incidence among patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). It is characterized by an intestinal obstruction secondary to fecal impaction in distal ileum or cecum. We report two adult patients with DIOS. A female with CF and subjected to lung transplantation at the age of 13 years old. Five years later, she consulted for an intestinal obstruction. She was treated conservatively with a good clinical evolution. She had a new episode of DIOS eight months later that was also treated conservatively. A 31 year-old mole, subjected to bilateral lung transplantation nine years before, that was admitted to the hospital for a bronchiolitis. Three days after admission he started with an intestinal obstruction that was diagnosed as a DIOS. He was managed conservatively with a good clinical response.

A Clinical analysis of Intestinal Obstruction in the Adult

Three hundred nine adult patients with the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction were treated at the Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital during 5 years and three months from September 1989 to December 1994. A clinical analysis of those patients was done and the following results were obtained. The most prevalent age group was sixth decade in cases of 90(29%) and male to female ratio was 2.1:1. The etiologic factors included adhesions 206(66.7%), malignant disease 51(16.5%), hernia 10(3.2%), intussusception 9(2.9%), ischemic injury 7(2.3%), bezoar 6(1.9%), volvulus 6(1.9%), inflammatory disease 5(1.6%), intestinal tuberculosis 5(1.6%), and others 3(0.9%). Malignant obstructions increased and it may be caused by increased cases of cancer operation. The location of intestinal obstruction was small bowel in cases of 275(89%) and large bowel in the remained proportion. The frequency of strangulation was 14.2% and its causes were adhesion(56.8%), ischemic injury(15.9%), hernia(9.1%), malignant disease(6.8%), volvulus(6.8%), intestinal tuberculosis(2.3%), and intususception(2.3%). The main cardinal symptoms on admission were abdominal pain(93.9%), vomiting(79.3%), abdominal distension(72.8%), diarrhea(24.9%), obstipation(17.2%), bloody stool(11.7%) and the physical signs were abdominal tenderness(74.8%), abdominal distension(72.8%), altered bowel sound(55.0%), tachycardia(18.1%), fever(17.5%), rebound tenderness(8.4%) . Toxic signs such as fever, tachycardia, rebound tenderness with leukocytosis over 10,000/mm3 have the clinical significance in the strangulated obstruction. Operations were done in 196 cases and the types of operative procedures were resection (23.7%), bypass surgery (11.4%), adhesiolysis (11.1%), colostomy (8.4%), herniorrhaphy(1.8%), bezoar removal (1.8%), and others (0.6%). Operative complications occurred in 44 cases(22.4%) and among them, wound infection was the most common cause(7.7%).The overall mortality was 3.2% and sepsis was the most common cause(30%).