[Meckel's diverticulum in childhood. Personal experience and actualization].

The authors present 40 cases of Meckel's diverticulum in pediatric patients (average age 6.8 years old). 31 of these (77.5%) were discovered casually in surgery and the other nine (22.5%) presented specific symptoms (three intestinal intussusceptions, three perforations, one hemorrhage, a wet umbilicus and an intestinal obstruction). In this group, seven abdominal radionuclide scan were practiced with 99mTc, resulting in two positive diagnosis (28.5%). All patients were treated with short ileal resection. The histopathological study revealed in nine cases (22.5%) the presence of gastric ectopic mucosa and, in one of them, pancreatic tissue was also found. The only morbidity was a postoperative intestinal obstruction that occurred several months later and that required surgery. The mortality was zero and the average hospital stay was 8.6 days.