A Clinical Observation of 129 Cases of Intussusception in Infants and Children

A retrospective study of 129 cases of intussusception from January 1972 to July 1977 at Busan Natinal University Hospital was done. Nearly 1,000 cases of intussusception were reported in Korean literatures, but still the causation of this disease is unclear. As the intussusception needs not only urgent diagnosis and treatment, but also it is relatively common during infancy and childhood, we think it will be necessary and worthwhile to analyse our own cases. The results were summarized as follows; 1) In age distribution, 79% of the patients were under 1 year of age and peak incidence was during 6~12months of age. 2) Male was predominant than female and male to female ratio was 2.3 : 1 3) In seasonal incidence, slight prevalence was noted during spring and summer. 4) The cardinal symptoms and signs on admission were revealed as vomitting (66%), abdominal pain, irritability or loud crying(64%), bloody or mucous bloody stool(61%) and abdominal mass(57%). 5) The most common type of intussusception was ileo-colic. 6) In the view of eiology, 96% of cases were idiopathic, but only 4% had organic causes. 7) The 90.8% of intussusception was reduced successfully by barium enema and surgical management with manual reduction or partial segmental resection was performed in only 10.2%. 8) The recurrence and mortality rate were 4% and 1% respectively.

Vitamin D Deficiency Rickets

Vitamin D deficiency rickets is a metabolic disorder of growing bone, which is still important nutritional problem in developing countries. Recently we had expirienced 2 cases of typical vitamin D deficiency rickets, who were fed with only thin rice gruels and not fed any nutrient diets, breast milk, vitamin D supplements and almostly not to be exposured to sunlight for a long period of time due to poor socio-economic condition. Treatments were consisted of 600,000 units of vitamin D injection, high protein, high calorie diets and frequent exposures to sunlight. All of two were improved in clinical and laboratory findings after above therapy.