Ultrasonography for the Diagnosis of Intussusception in Children: An Experience From Pakistan

Introduction: Intussusception can lead to small bowel obstruction in children, hence the early diagnosis of this condition is very important. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of sonography in the diagnostic work-up of children with suspected intussusceptions in the emergency setting, keeping surgical findings as the gold standard. Methods and design: Two hundred patients with classical presentation of intussusceptions, who were diagnosed either by barium enema or CT scan, were included in this study. Patients with irreducible intussusceptions on color Doppler were followed after surgery. Results: The average age of the patients was 6.7 +/- 2.8 years, and the study population consisted of 115 (57.5%) boys and 85 (42.5%) girls. One hundred forty-three patients were confirmed to have intussusception on ultrasonography, of whom 117 (81.8%) were confirmed to have intussusception after surgery while 26 (18%) were not diagnosed with intussusception during surgery. Despite the clinical presentation of intussusceptions, ultrasonography was not diagnostic in 57 patients, of whom 28 were confirmed to have intussusception after surgery and 29 were not found to have the disease. Conclusion: Use of ultrasonography in cases with intussusception has proven to be a reliable and accurate method for diagnosing intussusception and provides an advantage over unnecessary radiological or surgical procedures being performed.