WOFAPS 2025 8th World Congress of Pediatric Surgery

abuzar farhad, Muhammad Uzair, umaimah khuroosh, sania malik

khyber teaching hospital peshawar pakistan

Background: Intussusception is a common surgical emergency in infants and children that needs timely treatment. The majority of cases are idiopathic and can be treated with Ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction. In our setup, due to heavy workload and limited availability of Sonologist for this purpose, we trained pediatric surgical residents in performing ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction in ward setup

Methods: We did a prospective observational study of 6 months from June to December 2024, in which 37 patients aged 1 month to 5 years in whom ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction was attempted and outcomes were recorded.

Results: A total of 37 children (mean age: 14 months) with both clinical and ultrasound proven diagnosis of Intussusception were included in the study. 59.5% were male and 40.5% were female. Ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction was successful in 27 (72.9%) patients and failed in 10 patients who underwent subsequent laparotomy. Per-operatively, 6 underwent manual reduction with viable gut, 1 patient underwent resection of the compromised gut with end-to-end anastomosis, and 3 underwent gut resection with stoma formation.

Conclusions: Hydrostatic reduction is a well-known treatment option for intussusception. It is much more effective when done under ultrasound guidance, which is time-consuming and requires radiological expertise. Training pediatric surgeons in the basic understanding of sonology and the ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction procedure can bridge the gap, especially in poorly resourced setups with heavy patient inflow.