Abstract
Background and objectives: Intussusception is the commonest cause of bowel obstruction and is one of the common abdominal emergencies in children younger than 2 years of age.The objective of the study was to assess the clinical profile of intussusception in children and the management and the outcome and to assess whether the characteristics mentioned in clinical profile are predictive of subsequent management and outcome of the disease.
 Methods: A hospital based descriptive study conducted in a tertiary care centre in Kerala, using purposive sampling technique. 120 children admitted with diagnosis of intussusception fulfilling inclusion criteria and whose parents consented for study were included in the study population, during the study period from November 2018 to June 2020. Detailed history, clinical examination including per rectal examination and USG was done to make diagnosis of intussusception in suspected cases. Follow up is done at 72 hours,1 week after the admission and 1month later. To assess the clinical profile and outcome of patients, frequency and percentage is used. To obtain the association of clinical profile with outcome chi square test is applied.
 Results: Outcome of the problem was correlated with age, sex, symptoms, risk factors sonological findings treatment protocol and duration of hospital stay. Out of the 120 children in study population, majority were males(65.8%) with male to female ratio 1.9:1 and majority was in the age group 7- 12 months, which is similar to many other similar studies. Maximum number of cases were in the month of February(14.2%) and November(15%). Majority of the patients(57.5%) presented to healthcare facility within 24 hours of onset of first symptom.Irritability was the most common clinical symptom(62.5%) followed by vomiting(58.3%) and abdominal pain(49.2%). Ileocolic intussusception (96.7%) was the commonest type. Majority of the cases could be managed with hydrostatic saline reduction(73.3%) and significantly lesser number of patient went for surgical intervention(7.5%) and spontaneous resolution(19.2%).
 Conclusions: Incidence of intussusception is more common among males and more in the 7-12 month age group. Majority of the cases presented to health care facility within 24 hours of onset of symptom and could be managed with hydrostatic reduction technique and had a shorter duration of hospital stay compared to surgical reduction technique. Even recurrent cases could be managed with hydrostatic saline reduction.
 Keywords: Intussusception; Intestinal obstruction; Hydrostatic reduction; Spontaneous resolution
Highlights
Intussusception- a pathological telescoping of a portion of bowel into an adjacent part 1.It is usually due to lymphoid hyperplasia in infancy and early childhood, where as in older children and adults,it is usually secondary to some identifiable pathological lead point
Majority of children who presented with intussusception belonged to age group of 7-12 months (31.7%) followed by Tenderness(63.8%) was the most common sign followed by abdominal mass(46.7%)
No case of intussusception following rotavirus vaccination was noted in the study
Summary
Intussusception- a pathological telescoping of a portion of bowel into an adjacent part 1.It is usually due to lymphoid hyperplasia in infancy and early childhood, where as in older children and adults,it is usually secondary to some identifiable pathological lead point. The classic triad have been shown to be present in less than a quarter of children, making intussusception a difficult clinical diagnosis[1].Due to unknown factors, incidence of intussusception has been observed to an average of about 6-8 cases per month in our center. Majority of the patients(57.5%) presented to healthcare facility within 24 hours of onset of first symptom.Irritability was the most common clinical symptom(62.5%) followed by vomiting(58.3%) and abdominal pain(49.2%). Majority of the cases could be managed with hydrostatic saline reduction(73.3%) and significantly lesser number of patient went for surgical intervention(7.5%) and spontaneous resolution(19.2%). Majority of the cases presented to health care facility within 24 hours of onset of symptom and could be managed with hydrostatic reduction technique and had a shorter duration of hospital stay compared to surgical reduction technique.
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