Meconium ileus: ten patients over 28 years of age.

Meconium ileus is the initial clinical manifestation of cystic fibrosis. Once the intestinal obstruction is corrected either medically or surgically the course of disease is that of cystic fibrosis. It is suggested that babies with this disease should be treated in specialized pediatric cystic fibrosis centers to prevent early death or some avoidable complications. Genetic counseling for affected families is recommended when a baby is born with this condition. Usually such infants are born at full term and there is no sex predilection. Prognosis is uncertain and the outlook depends, as it does in cystic fibrosis, on the degree and rate of progression of the pulmonary involvement. This paper presents a series of unusual patients with meconium ileus who have reached adulthood, thus, offering hope that a satisfactory life beyond adolescence is possible in this formerly fatal disease of infancy.