Colocolic intussusception in adults due to invagination of the cecal wall

Abstract

The frequency, cause, and clinical picture of intussusception in adults and that observed in infants and children stand in marked contrast to each other. The idiopathic nature of the disease in a majority of infants and children is taken for granted. In adults a search is made, usually rewarding, for an underlying cause of the intussusception. Foremost among these, particularly in the colocolic variety, is primary carcinoma of the bowel. To add another item to the list of causative factors, three patients have been described in whom invagination of a redundant portion of the cecal wall was found to be the initiating mechanism of the intussusception. The observed pathologic condition was similar in all three cases; however, each case presented a stage in the orderly progression of the telescoping process from initial invagination to complete intussusception. One patient in whom the intussusception was in the advanced stage required bowel resection. In the other two, a change in the axis of the invaginating fold effectively overcame the telescoping tendency of the cecal wall.