Transient intussusception without a lead point in adults — a rare condition or a silent cause of common symptoms?

Abstract

Bowel intussusception is a rare condition in adults. Two types of intussusception determine its cause — with and without a lead point. The former, resulting from an organic cause is more common in adults and usually requires surgical treatment. The symptoms of intussusception include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and gastrointestinal obstruction. Additional symptoms may be due to the presence of the pathology that constitutes the lead point of intussusception, such as a tumour or inflammatory intestinal disease. On diagnostic imaging, intussusception appears as a target-sign or sausage-shaped mass. Due to the rare occurrence of intussusception in adults, special attention should be paid to detecting the underlying organic causes of its occurrence. Transient intussusception is generally a non-lead point, occurs incidentally and is not life-threatening. Non-diagnosed periodic abdominal pains in adults can be caused by a transient intussusception of the small bowel. The article presents and discusses two cases of a rare transient non-lead point intussusception that was diagnosed during a CT which subsided or occurred during the consecutive phases of this examination.