Frequency, Associated Symptoms and Prognosis of Intussusception in Tertiary Care Hospital of Province Sindh

Background: Intussusception is an important disease of childhood & has been recognized since ancient time. It commonly involves young infants of 3 ½ months to 10 months of age. Diagnosis is mostly clinical on the basis of classical triad or quarter of pain in abdomen, vomiting palpable abdominal mass and currant red jelly stools. It is confirmed by ultrasound, barium enema which also has a therapeutic potential. The parents in our region lacks awareness regarding the intussusception. They usually bring the child to hospitals after trying various homemade or herbal remedies. The delay in diagnosis always results in severity in symptoms and aggressive mode of treatment.

Objective: The current study was aimed to identify the Frequency, associated symptoms and post-operative complications of intussusception in tertiary care hospital of Province Sindh

Methodology: It was a cross sectional study conducted from July 2017 to June 2020 at department of Pediatric Surgery Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College Teaching Hospital Sukkur. Data regarding symptoms and prognosis was noted on the file of patient and written informed consent was taken from parents. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Chi square was applied as test of significance at 95%confidance interval and p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant.

Results: Fourty patients of intussusceptions were reported the mean age was 5.88 ± 1.5 months while 8 (20%) patients were 1to10 years with mean age of 3.88± 3.18 years. Thirteen (32.5%) patients presented within 24 hours of onset of symptoms and 27 (67.5%) presented after 24 hours 19 (47.5%) patients had history of diarrhea while 6 (15%) patients had respiratory tract infection. The most common postoperative complication was gut gangrene.

Conclusion: In three years of study we found only 40 children who came to our hospital with diarrhea and the triad i.e. abdominal pain, abdominal mass and bleeding per rectum. Ultrasound abdomen was found to be best diagnostic modality with impressive accuracy rate at our setup. Gut gangrene was postoperative complication and recurrence was uncommon.