Abstract
A male infant was delivered by cesarean section at 29 weeks and 4 days of gestation because of placenta previa totalis. His birth weight was 1,348 g and Apgar score was 9/9. After birth, he showed signs of respiratory distress syndrome and was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. He had one meconium stool 24 hours after birth, and his abdomen became progressively distended before feeding. Plain abdominal X-ray on day 3 showed free intraperitoneal air, and he underwent emergency surgery for suspected isolated intestinal perforation. He was hemodynamically stable and laboratory data were in the normal range. At surgery, a 5-mm-diameter punched-out perforation was found 10 cm from the ileocecal valve. The perforated site protruded as a diverticulum. A mesodiverticular band was also found. He was diagnosed with a perforated Meckel's diverticulum. He underwent resection of the affected ileum with end-to-end anastomosis. Pathological findings showed thinning and a defect of the muscular layer with a localized inflammatory reaction around the perforation without ectopic mucosa, suggesting an isolated intestinal perforation. We report here a very rare case of perforated Meckel's diverticulum in a neonate with review of literature.
