Ultrasound Guided Hydrostatic Reduction of Intussusception in Children at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital: An Initial Experience

Abstract

Intussusceptions is the telescoping or invagination of a portion of intestine (intussusceptum) into an adjacent segment (intussuscipiens). It is one of the common causes of bowel obstruction in infants and toddlers. Sonography has now been accepted as a method for guiding hydrostatic reduction of intussusception with tap water, normal saline or Ringer's lactate solution. This method is currently being used at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. It is a very simple, efficient, economical and quick method of managing intussusception. The duration of the procedure ranges between two minutes and thirty minutes, with the majority being under ten minutes. A total of twenty intussusceptions were managed in eighteen patients over a nine month period. In fifteen patients (75%) the intussusception was reduced successfully. In five patients (25%), the procedure failed to reduce the intussusceptions.