Case Report: A Closed Loop Obstruction Secondary to Idiopathic Small Bowel Intussusception in an Elderly Woman

Abstract

Intussusception is primarily a disease of children and is the primary cause of intestinal obstruction in the pediatric age group. It accounts for around 5–16% of cases of intestinal obstruction in adults of the western population. Most cases of adult intussusception (up to 90%) are secondary to an identified structural lesion or a lead point contrary to pediatric intussusception. Adults with intussusception present with subacute or chronic symptoms of partial obstruction. CT is the best imaging to make a preoperative diagnosis of adult intussusception. The standard treatment for adult intussusception is surgery, and non-operative reduction should not be attempted. Here, we present a rare case of idiopathic small bowel intussusception in a 50-year-old woman. She presented with crampy abdominal pain for one-week duration. It was associated with frequent vomiting of bilious matter. She claimed to have had similar symptoms for the past 2 months and had repeatedly visited nearby health facilities. She had an abdominal CT, which suggested a complicated small bowel intussusception. Exploratory laparotomy was done, and there was a small bowel intussusception and an inflammatory stricture at the end of the intussusceptum, which is believed to form a closed-loop like obstruction. The intussusceptum was resected en-bloc then end-to-end jejuno-jejunal anastomosis was performed. This case report makes physicians aware of this rare condition in adults. So that they have a high index of suspicion when a patient presents with symptoms of subacute or chronic intestinal obstruction and inform that abdominal CT should be done in these circumstances and surgery is the mainstay of treatment. Our case is unique, and there is no report in the literature similar to ours.

Keywords:

• intussusception
• adult
• small bowel intussusception
• small bowel obstruction

Data Sharing Statement

The data used to support the findings of this study will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethical Review

After receiving permission from the Hawassa University Institutional Review Board (IRB), the patient provided written informed consent for the publication of this case report. The consent included case-specific information and images.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Dr Gedion Getachew, a second year surgical resident in Hawassa University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, for the nice intraoperative pictures. And they would like to express sincere gratitude to Dr Abebe melis, a pathologist, and Dr Selamawit G/Egziabher a third year pathology resident in Hawassa University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, who did a great job preparing the pathologic slides. Moreover, we would like to thank our patient who allowed us to undertake this case report.

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this work.