Intraoperative intraluminal injection of N-acetylcysteine allowing treatment of distal intestinal obstruction syndrome without the need for enterotomy.

We describe a case of an 18-year-old man who suffers from cystic fibrosis and developed distal intestinal obstruction syndrome while being treated as an inpatient. Following failed medical management, we proceeded to laparotomy where the small bowel was decompressed with retrograde milking into the stomach, leaving a section of impacted stool in the distal ileum. N-acetylcysteine was injected into the bowel lumen proximal to the obstruction. This resulted in dissolution of the stool without the need for enterotomy and is, to our knowledge, the first successful example of this technique in the literature.