Management of Intussusception in Infants and Children

Introduction Intussusception is the telescoping of a portion of the intestine into an adjacent segment of bowel. The occurrence of this in infants and children constitutes one of the commonest abdominal emergencies and is seen most frequently in the first two years of life. This telescoping of the intestine may occur at any level in the intestinal tract, but most frequently at the ileocolic junction. When the intussusception originates in the colon, ileocolic junction, or lower ileum, it may be reduced by air insufflation or enemata. When irreducible by conservative measures, or when the intussusception is proximal to the terminal ileum it constitutes a surgical emergency. At the time of operation, many of these intussusceptions can be reduced by manual taxis, as first advocated by Hutchinson.1 However, a certain number will be found to be irreducible or gangrenous, and until the past decade these carried an exceedingly high mortality. Because