Intestinal Obstruction in Pediatric Age Group: A Clinico- Pathological Study.

ABSTRACT

Background: Intestinal obstruction is one of the commonest surgical emergencies seen in pediatric patients. In last few decades, the scenario of diagnosis and management of pediatric intestinal obstruction has been changed due to better understanding of pathophysiology, improvement in diagnostic methods, availability of better antibiotics, safer pediatric anesthesia and advanced pre and post operative intensive care. Objectives: To study the epidemiology, clinical features and outcome of intestinal obstruction in paediatric patients. Methods: The present prospective study was conducted in department of General Surgery, Index Medical College, Indore in paediatric patients admitted with clinical features and diagnosis of intestinal obstruction between July 2014 to June 2016 (2 years). Results: Majority of cases of intestinal obstruction in our study were in age group of 0-1 years (70.2%), followed by the age group of 1-5 years (20.2%) and more than 5 years (9.6%). Conclusion: Majority of patients (70.2%) were of less than one year age, and male to female ratio was found to be 3.51. Congenial causes of intestinal obstruction were more common (61.7%) than the acquired causes. Intussusception (18.1%) was the commonest cause of intestinal obstruction in this series.