Baby crying with bloody stools alerted to “intussusception”

  Nini’s father has palpitations every time he recalls the following experience, he said that thanks to the timely diagnosis and treatment by the doctor, otherwise Nini would not have escaped the disaster of “open-heart surgery”!  1 year and 2 months old Nini people love to see! After birth, basically no illness. A few days ago when the night bath Nini a little low-grade fever, body temperature 37.6 ℃, discharge of egg flower soup Yang stool once, the baby mother think is a pile of food, did not care too much. The next morning, Nini’s temperature was normal, according to the schedule, the parents of the baby to take Nini to the Zheng University Third Affiliated Hospital in the morning to early childhood classes, swimming; back to Grandma’s house for lunch. In the afternoon to Greentown Square sunbathing …… but once on the car Nini vomited, almost to the hospital Nini actually cried for a few minutes and vomited again! The baby parents thought Nini was seasick and still did not pay attention. The day’s schedule was over, and the parents took Nini back home around 8:00 pm. But Nini cried for a while every half hour or so, then played on her own for a while and had dry heaves! About 12 o’clock Nini woke up crying again, and vomited something green, and discharged “flesh-washing water-like stool”! The parents took Nini directly to the Pediatric Gastroenterology Department of the Third Affiliated Hospital. The doctor on duty took a detailed medical history and did a physical examination, routine blood and stool tests, ultrasound and other ancillary tests, and made a preliminary diagnosis of “intussusception; rotavirus enteritis”!  Intussusception is the most common acute abdominal disease in children under 2 years old, accounting for 15-20% of intestinal obstruction, which can occur throughout the year. Intussusception is a phenomenon in which one part of the intestine is snapped into another part of the intestine due to the loss of the normal rhythm of intestinal peristalsis. In infancy, the ileus is more mobile, and various causes of intestinal peristaltic function and rhythm disturbance, such as changes in the infant’s diet and habits, diarrhea, and viral infections can induce intussusception.  Infant intussusception has the following “quadruple signs” characteristic performance: 1, paroxysmal crying (abdominal pain): for the early appearance of the symptoms, characterized by a healthy infant, without any cause and sudden onset of violent and regular paroxysmal crying (abdominal pain). The child presents with paroxysmal crying and restlessness, leg flexion, and pallor. Each attack lasts about 10-20 minutes, then the child falls asleep quietly, or plays as usual, and then suddenly attacks again after an interval of tens of minutes, with the same symptoms as before. After repeatedly doing so, the child becomes mentally ill, fatigued and pale. This is mainly due to the colic pain caused by violent contraction of the sheath of the intestine after the intestinal tube has been set in. Individuals with smaller children do not cry violently, but only show bouts of restlessness and pallor, and then enter a state of shock, which requires special vigilance.  2. Vomiting: 85% of infants have vomiting in the early stage of the disease, mainly due to reflex vomiting caused by the pulling of the mesentery, and late vomiting is a manifestation of intestinal obstruction.  3. Bloody stools: About half of the children present with bloody stools as the first symptom. Most often occurs 6-12 hours after the onset of the disease, is one of the characteristics of the disease, often dark red jam-like stool, can also be fresh blood stool or blood, generally no odor, when suspected of the disease and no blood in the stool can be rectal finger examination, if the finger test stained with blood has the same diagnostic significance. The reason for the blood in the stool is the impaired blood circulation in the intestinal wall, resulting in mucosal leakage of blood and intestinal mucus mixed together.  4. Abdominal mass: A “salami-like” mass can be palpated in the upper abdomen of the child, which is the intestinal tube of the condyloma. Sometimes the abdominal mass is not easy to reach because the infant is crying and uncooperative in the examination.  Experienced doctors, based on the above quadruple signs, combined with the abdominal ultrasound “concentric circles” performance, it is easy to make a preliminary diagnosis of intussusception; confirming the diagnosis depends on air pressure enema, colonic gas injection or barium X-ray is a simple, safe and reliable diagnostic method, see the “cup mouth The “cupped” image is characteristic of the correct diagnosis can be made in time, and is also a better treatment measure. This test is both a means of confirming the diagnosis and the preferred option for non-surgical treatment.  Non-surgical treatment: Air or barium enema is preferred. The indications are primary intussusception within 48 hours of the disease, the child is in good general condition, no significant dehydration, no significant abdominal distension, and soft abdomen. The indications of reset air enema see the air suddenly enter the end of ileum, pull out the anal tube that see the child expel a lot of foul gas; abdominal mass disappears; the general condition of the child improve, quiet, no longer cry; oral 0.5 ~ 1.0g of carbon end, 6 ~ 8 hours later can be excreted by the feces carbon end, that means the reset completely successful.  Surgical treatment: Late stage of the disease is more serious, uncooperative enema reset cases, or has been enema failed to reset cases, suspected of small intestine overlap; and reset up to more than 3 times must be surgical treatment. Pre-operative preparation should include correction of dehydration and electrolyte disorders, antibiotics, antipyretic and blood transfusion. During the surgery, repositioning of intussusception, intestinal resection and anastomosis, enterostomy, etc. should be performed according to the child’s condition and pathological changes.  Special reminder: After the repositioning of intussusception, we need to wait for the activated charcoal to be excreted in the stool to confirm the restoration of intestinal patency before eating, and a small number of children have the possibility of recurrence of intussusception after repositioning, so we need to keep an eye on them.