Abstract
We encountered 877 children with intussusception over 30 years at a single center and their clinical characteristics were reviewed retrospectively. Four hundred sixty-eight cases were under 1 year old, accounting for 53% of all cases. Patients aged between 3 months and 2 years old accounted for 89%. The success rate of hydrostatic reduction by barium enema was 76%. Patients admitted more than 48 hours after the onset of symptoms tended to show failure of barium enema reduction, with the reduction rate being 38%. They also showed a higher rate of need for bowel resection due to necrosis. There were 20 cases (2.3%) having pathological lead points (PLP), with 11 having a Meckel's diverticulum. Only 1% of cases under 2 years old had PLP, in contrast to 13% of cases aged more than 3 years old. The recurrence rate after reduction by barium enema was 15%, and that after reduction by surgery was 5%. Only one case with PLP was included among the 31 cases with more than two recurrences, suggesting that surgery may be avoided in recurrent cases.
