Profiling adult intussusception patients: comparing colonic versus enteric intussusception.

Background: Adult intussusception is a rare entity representing 1% of all adult bowel obstruction, hospital admissions secondary to intussusception historically has ranged between .003% and .02%. There is limited knowledge regarding enteric and colonic surgical intussusception patients and their associated conditions.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using data from the National Inpatient Sample from 1998 to 2006. The inclusion criteria were surgical patients with intussusception.

Results: A total of 1,178 cases of intussusception requiring surgery were isolated from the database. The mean patient age was 49.57 years, about 58% were females, 99.43% of this population was insured, and the overall mortality rate was 1.70%. Colonic resection was associated with greater mortality compared with the enteric resection group (P = .018).

Conclusions: This was a large study on surgical adult intussusception patients conducted in the United States. We show differences in demography, comorbidities, and potential causes between colonic and enteric intussusception.