[Role of ultrasonic diagnosis in patients with clinically suspected acute intestinal invagination]. / Ruolo dell'esame ecografico nei pazienti con sospetto clinico di invaginazione intestinale acuta.

Acute intestinal intussusception is one of the commonest causes of abdominal emergency in infants. It strikes mainly infants 3 to 30 months old. Ileo-colic intussusception is the commonest form (75-95%), whereas ileo-ileo-colic, colono-colic and ileo-ileal intussusceptions are rather uncommon. Intussusception is primitive in 95% of cases and secondary in the extant 5%. Over the last 3 years we examined 25 infants with clinical suspicion of acute intestinal intussusception by means of plain abdominal radiographs and US. In 11 cases US diagnosed acute intestinal intussusception. US signs useful for diagnosis were: intussusception "pudding" on both transverse and longitudinal scans, and communicating intussusception "pudding" and bowel. US allowed intestinal intussusception to be diagnosed in 11 cases and ruled out in 14, with 100% reliability. In agreement with literature data, our results confirm US as the method of choice--versus conventional radiology--in the diagnosis of acute intestinal intussusception and stress the value of US studies in helping avoid surgery.