Different clinical symptoms and surgical treatment of Meckel's diverticulum in children

Abstract

Objective: Meckel's diverticulum is the most common congenital anomaly of the gastrointestinal tract and is usually identified incidentally during surgery for other reasons, upon radiological workup while investigating another disease or during autopsy. Among certain major symptoms of Meckel's diverticulum include gastrointestinal bleeding, volvulus, diverticulitis, intussusception, Littre's hernia or stool discharge from the umbilicus. In this study, we examined pediatric patients who were operated on for Meckel's diverticulum presenting with different clinical symptoms.
 Methods: The files of pediatric patients who were operated for Meckel's diverticulum in the pediatric surgery clinic between July 2002 and July 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who underwent incidental diverticulectomy were excluded from the study.
 Results: The 47 patients included in the study were 34 boys, 13 girls, and their mean age was 4.8 (1 day, 16 years). 49% of the patients were younger than 2 years old. The most common symptom observed in the patients was abdominal pain (63.8%). The most common indication for surgery was intestinal obstruction (53.2%). Intussusception was the cause in 64% of the patients in whom intestinal obstruction was the initial diagnosis. We detected gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding complaint in 12.8% of the patients. Segmentary bowel resection (46.8%) was the most common surgical procedure. In the pathological examination, ectopic tissue was found in 27 (57.4%) pathological specimens. While postoperative complications developed in 9 patients, 4 patients were treated conservatively and 5 patients were treated surgically.
 Conclusion: Establishing a preoperative diagnosis of Meckel's diverticulum may be difficult non other than rectal bleeding with currant jelly stool. In symptomatic Meckel's diverticulum, simple diverticulectomy, wedge resection or segmental bowel resection should be planned according to the complication caused by the diverticulum.