Meckel’s Diverticulum: Still Formidable during Acute Abdominal Surgeries – An Observational Study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Meckel’s diverticulum is a relatively common congenital diverticulum of ileum resulting from incomplete atrophy of the vitellointestinal duct in the embryo. Even though the majority of Meckel’s diverticulum is asymptomatic, their potential to present with severe complications such as bleeding and perforation, intestinal obstruction has, nevertheless, caused much debate regarding whether a silent Meckel’s should be pre-emptively resected when incidentally discovered during acute abdominal surgeries. Aim: Our study aims to analyze the incidental finding of Meckel’s diverticulum during acute abdominal surgeries and its surgical management. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted for the incidental findings of Meckel’s diverticulum during acute abdominal surgeries. All the patients clinical, radiological, laboratory, and pathological findings were collected and the results were statistically analyzed and discussed. Results: Out of 13 patients, 9 were males and 4 were females, based on age 10 years, patients had age below 40 years and 3 of them had above 40 years, based on clinical manifestations, 1 had perforative peritonitis, 1 had intestinal obstruction, 1 had acute diverticulitis, 1 had recurrent abdominal pain, and 9 were asymptomatic and incidentally found, among them 5 were found during appendectomy, 1 during gastrectomy, 1 during hernia surgery, 1 during traumatic Whipple’s procedure, and 1 during gastrojejunostomy. Conclusion: Symptomatic Meckel’s diverticulum was associated with dreaded complications such as perforative peritonitis, intestinal obstruction, and diverticulitis with severe pain which made us conclude about even an asymptomatic Meckel’s diverticulum found incidentally during acute abdominal surgeries need to be resected.