[Ogilvie's syndrome after cesarean section. Apropos of 3 cases. Review of the literature].

Ogilvie's syndrome or pseudo-obstruction of the colon shows up as a clinical picture of acute obstruction of the large bowel without an associated pathological lesion as usually occurs in older patients. Three cases of Ogilvie's syndrome following Caesarean section are reported in this work. Caesarean section seems to be the most common operative procedure associated with this syndrome. Up till now 41 cases have been described in the literature. This syndrome is serious because it is possible for the caecum to burst causing faecal peritonitis which carries a heavy mortality. Seventeen cases of perforation of the caecum have been reported in the literature. The diagnosis is made by x-raying the patient's abdomen without any pre-x-ray preparation; if an enema of gastroffin is given it can be shown that there is no organic cause for the obstruction. The pathological cause seems to be disturbance of the autonomic innervation of the colon. The colon should be decompressed rapidly; and the present technique is to do this using a colonoscope with or without epidural anaesthesia. Surgery should be reserved for cases that have complications or that have been refractory to conservative treatment. Of our three cases two were treated successfully by colonoscopic decompression and one with the use of drugs.