General anaesthesia may improve the success rate of hydrostatic reductions of intussusception.

Abstract

Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in young children. Hydrostatic enemas result in a successful reduction of intussusception in 50% to 80% of patients. Failure to achieve reduction with hydrostatic enema results in laparotomy, although a frequent finding upon exploration is complete reduction of the intussusception, presumably due to induction of general anaesthesia. Recent paediatric literature suggests that induction of general anaesthesia may improve the success rate of therapeutic hydrostatic enema. We report a difficult case of recurrent intussusception where the induction of general anaesthesia alone did not result in reduction of intussusception, but successful reduction by enema was achieved while the patient was anaesthetized.