The pathologic lead points in childhood intussusception

ABSTRACT

Most childhood intussusceptions are occured by unknown cause, but a few of them have pathologic lead points. We have collected and analyzed cases with pathologic lead points, and compared them with cases without pathological lead points. A retrospective review was performed on 227 patients who were operated on for intussusception in Yeungnam University Hospital from Jan. 1986 to Apr. 1999. We divided them into 2 groups; idiopathic group (209 cases, 92.1%) and pathologic lead points group (18 cases, 7.9%), and compared the characteristics of each group. Intussusceptions were most commonly occurred in patients between 2 to 6 months of age in both groups. Enteroenteric type of intussusception was relatively more frequent in pathologic lead points group than in idiopathic group (p<0.05). The pathologic lead points were veil (10 cases, 52.6%), Meckel's diverticulum (3 cases, 15.8%), lymphoma (3 cases, 15.8%), ectopic pancreas (2 cases, 10.5%), and Henoch-Schonlein purpura (1 case, 5.3%). The rate of bowel resection was 44.4% in pathologic lead points group and 8.6% in idiopathic group (p<0.05). The present study suggests that the sex, age, type, and operation of intussusception behaved somewhat differently between idiopathic group and pathologic lead points group.