Recurrent Acute Intussusception in Children

Little attention has been directed to the difficult and unusual patient with multiple acute recurrent intussusception. Studies pertaining to the cause of the recurrent lesion are not common. Of the multitudinous reports in the literature, most are series analyses of patients having primary intussusception. The purpose of this paper is to discuss incidence, etiology, principles of management of the recurrent type, and to present an illustrative difficult case.

History  At the turn of the century Clark and Bunts⁵ reported the first case of recurrence of the common type of intussusception. This recurrence was treated expectantly and resulted in death of the 7-month-old child. The first patient successfully treated by surgical methods for primary and recurrent intussusceptions was a 5½-month-old infant recorded in the American literature in 1901 by Doane.¹⁰ By 1921 Cohen⁷ had collected 21 patients from the literature who had recurrent intussusceptions treated entirely by surgical