Adult intussusception caused by the intestinal lipoma

Abstract

An 81-year-old woman presented to the Emergency Department complaining of abdominal pain and anorexia ongoing for 3 days. Abdominal contrast CT scan showed intussusception of the small intestine into the transverse colon, with adipose tissue at the lead point. After first performing emergency reduction by colonoscopy, we used single-balloon small-bowel endoscopy to snare and remove the lipoma. Adult-onset intussusception is relatively rare, accounting for only 5% of all cases. While malignant tumors are often the cause of colon intussusception, small intestine cases are more frequently caused by benign tumors. There have been many reports of small intestinal intussusceptions caused by lipomas like in this case, but no cases in which polyp resection was conducted in addition to endoscopic reduction have been reported yet. The choice to treat intussusception by endoscopy is made when surgery is difficult or unnecessary.