Purpose@#
Intussusception is the most common cause of bowel obstruction in
children; however, it is rarely diagnosed in
newborn infants. This study aimed to describe the clinical features of
intussusception in
newborn infants. @*
Methods@#
Medical records of eight
patients diagnosed with
intussusception during the
newborn period at Ulsan
University Hospital between March 2007 and March 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. @*Results@#Among the eight cases, two occurred in the intrauterine period and six occurred in the postnatal period. Intrauterine
intussusception presented with symptoms of bowel obstruction within 1 to 2 days after
birth, and ileal atresia was diagnosed simultaneously through exploratory
laparotomy. All the postnatal
patients were extremely
low birth weight infants (median
gestational age and
birth weight 25+6 weeks and 745 g, respectively). Four cases were diagnosed preoperatively using abdominal
ultrasonography. One
patient was diagnosed by exploratory
laparotomy because the clinical symptoms were nonspecific and difficult to differentiate from those of
necrotizing enterocolitis, a more prevalent complication in
preterm infants. The site of
intussusception in all six
patients was the small bowel. Meckel’s
diverticulum (one case) and
meconium obstruction (two cases) were found to be the
lead point. @*Conclusion@#Neonatal
intussusception tends to show different clinical features according to its period of occurrence.
Intussusception, especially in
preterm infants, has nonspecific clinical features; therefore, clinicians should always be cautious of this
disease for its
early diagnosis.