[Intussusception in adults].
BACKGROUND
Adult intussusception is an unusual entity, and its etiology differs from that in pediatric patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the causes and management of intussusception in adults.


METHODS
A retrospective review of patients with a diagnosis of gastrointestinal intussusception between 1986 and 2006 was conducted. All patients under the age of 18 and cases with rectal, ostomy, or gastroenterostomy prolapse were excluded.


RESULTS
There were 28 cases of adult intussusception. Mean age was 38.6+/-16.7 years. A preoperative diagnosis of intussusception was made in 53.5% of the cases. There were 23 enteric, three colonic and two ileocolic intussusceptions. A lead point was identified in 25 patients (89.3%). Invagination was due to benign causes in 19 patients, malignant causes in six patients and idiopathic in three patients. Complication was seen in three (10.3%) cases.


CONCLUSIONS
In this series, the mean age of the patients was younger than in the literature. Since intussusception was due to small bowel pathologies, the proportion of benign/malignant lesions favored benign lesions. Although it is encountered rarely in adults, physicians should be aware of invagination and consider it in each case of acute abdomen because of the wide spectrum of the clinical settings.
Department of General Surgery, Dicle University Faculty of Medicine, Diyarbakir, Turkey. ozgur-korkmaz@hotmail.com
Ozgür
O
Korkmaz
Hatice Gülşen
HG
Yilmaz
Ibrahim Halil
IH
Taçyildiz
Yilmaz
Y
Akgün
D000328:Adult; D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007077:Ileal Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D007414:Intestinal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D007443:Intussusception / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies