Sir,
I read with great interest the image quiz “Unusal cause of crampy abdominal pain” by Yagnik.[1] In the answer published in July-September 2010 issue of Saudi Journal of Gastroenterology. In the answer of second question, he mentioned that intussusception in adults is almost always due to pre-existing disease. I like to state here that 8-20% of cases of intussusceptions in adults are idiopathic.[2] In a recent retrospective review of 41 patients of adult intussusceptions by Wang et al.,[3] four (9.1%) cases were idiopathic where etiologies could not be found by surgical exploration and/or pathology. These idiopathic intussusceptions in adults usually involve small intestine.
REFERENCES
- 1.Yagnik VD. Unusal cause of crampy abdominal pain. Saudi J Gastroenterol. 2010;16:241–2. doi: 10.4103/1319-3767.65191. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Marinis A, Yiallourou A, Samanides L, Dafnios N, Anastasopoulos G, Vassiliou I, et al. Intussusception of the bowel in adults: A review. World J Gastroenterol. 2009;15:407–11. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.407. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Wang N, Cui XY, Liu Y, Long J, Xu YH, Guo RX, et al. Adult intussusception: A retrospective review of 41 cases. World J Gastroenterol. 2009;15:3303–8. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.3303. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]