Intussusception. A cause of postoperative intestinal obstruction in children.

Intestinal obstruction is a common postoperative complication and usually related to intra-abdominal adhesions. Postoperative intussusception, however, is a rare cause and may be confused with postoperative ileus. With more children undergoing abdominal operations, the incidence of postoperative intussusception should rise but reports indicate that this complication may be either not suspected or overlooked. We report 2 children who developed postoperative intussusception following repair of ruptured urinary bladder in one and appendicectomy in the other. Both had successful manual reduction at laparotomy.