[Comprehensive analysis of 203 cases with abdominal cocoon].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the clinical characteristics,diagnosis and treatment of abdominal cocoon.


METHODS
Clinical data of 203 cases with abdominal cocoon including 7 cases in our hospital and 196 cases reported in Chinese literature from January 1995 to June 2005 were analyzed retrospectively.


RESULTS
The male to female ratio was approximately 1.2:1. The mean age at diagnosis was 33 years. The main clinical manifestations included recurrent acute or chronic intestinal obstruction in 147 cases (72.4%), abdominal mass in 53 cases (26.1%). Of the 203 cases, abdominal plain X-ray were performed in 163, B-ultrasound in 85, CT in 68 and barium meal in 32 cases, however, only 6 cases (3.0%) were diagnosed as abdominal cocoon preoperatively. All the cases received operations included partial or total excision of the membrane and enterolysis in 172 cases (84.7%), together with bowel resection in 34 cases (16.7%) and appendectomy in 51 cases (25.1%). Postoperative complications included recurrent obstruction in 55, and death in 11 cases (5.4%).


CONCLUSIONS
The preoperative diagnosis of abdominal cocoon is difficult. Operations should be performed on the cases with intestine obstruction. Recurrent adhesive intestinal obstruction is the main postoperative complication.
Tu
Jin-fu
JF
Department of Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou 325000, China. tujinfu@sina.com
Huang
Xiu-fang
XF
Zhu
Guan-bao
GB
Liao
Yi
Y
Jiang
Fei-zhao
FZ
D034841:Abdominal Cavity / Q000473:pathology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007415:Intestinal Obstruction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult