Omental Infarction: An Underrecognized Cause of Right-Sided Acute Abdominal Pain in Children.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of omental infarction (OI) in children with suspected appendicitis, the role of ultrasonography (US) in its diagnosis and management and the efficacy of conservative management. METHODS: Consecutive children with suspected acute appendicitis were prospectively enrolled. Ultrasonography was performed at baseline, during follow-up, before the discharge, and at 15-day intervals until US findings of OI disappeared. All children with a diagnosis of OI were treated conservatively. RESULTS: One hundred ninety-nine children (91 male; age range, 3-15 years) were evaluated. Eighty-four patients had acute appendicitis. Omental infarctions were found in 14 children (8 male; mean age, 9.8 ± 2.6 years), with an incidence of 7%. Ultrasonography depicted an echogenic mass consistent with OI in all children. Ultrasonography detected in 8 patients a normal-looking appendix, whereas in other 6 patients, it identified neither appendix nor indirect signs of acute appendicitis. A normal appendix has been detected by US during follow-up in 2 of these 6 patients. During follow-up, US finding of OI disappeared in all cases and no signs of acute appendicitis or other disease occurred. All 14 OIs were treated conservatively, with no reported complications. CONCLUSIONS: Omental infarction is an underestimated cause of abdominal pain in children accounting for 7% of patients with suspected appendicitis. Ultrasonography is a useful method for the diagnoses and to guide clinical management of OI. Conservative therapy is a safe option for the management of OI.

Not only fat: omental infarction and its mimics in children. Clinical and ultrasound findings: a pictorial review.

Acute abdominal pain in children is the most common cause of emergency department admissions. Omental infarction is a rare cause of acute abdominal pain in this age group, accounting for approximately 15% of cases in children and 0.024-0.1% of cases of surgery for suspected appendicitis at the same age. Its clinical presentation may mimic similar diseases such as acute appendicitis, epiploic appendagitis, and mesenteric panniculitis. Ultrasound is the modality of choice for the initial evaluation of acute abdominal pain in pediatric patients and it can be used with confidence in the diagnosis and management of omental infarction in children. In this brief review, we focus on the main ultrasound findings and their diagnostic clue for omental infarction and its mimics.

The pediatric gastrointestinal tract: ultrasound findings in acute diseases.

The study of the gastrointestinal tract by imaging, particularly using ultrasound, is a required instrument for diagnosis of acute and chronic gastrointestinal pathologies in pediatric age. Actually, ultrasound plays an increasing role in the evaluation of gastrointestinal tract in neonatal and pediatric patients because of their small body habitus and the presence of less fat tissue in the abdominal wall and peritoneal cavity. Ultrasound has certain advantages, thanks to the new wide-spectrum frequency probes able to assess a detailed study of the morphological aspects and functional characteristics of bowel loops, adding a new dimension to the imaging of this body system. In this paper, we review anatomy, ultrasound technique and sonographic findings of bowel pathology frequently encountered in neonatal and pediatric emergency setting.

Diagnostic imaging features of necrotizing enterocolitis: a narrative review.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammatory process, characterized by intestinal necrosis of variable extension, leading to perforation, generalized peritonitis and death. The classical pathogenetic theory focuses on mucosal damage related to a stress induced intestinal ischemia leading to mucosal injury and bacterial colonization of the wall. A more recent hypothesis emphasizes the role of immaturity of gastrointestinal and immune system, particularly of the premature, responsible of bowel wall vulnerability and suffering. NEC is the most common gastrointestinal emergency in the newborn, with a higher incidence in the preterm; improvement of neonatal resuscitation techniques enables the survival of premature of very low birth weight (VLBW) with prolongation of hospital stay for perinatal and neonatal care and a higher risk of NEC. Clinical presentation of NEC in newborn ranges from mild forms with moderate gastrointestinal tract disorder and that can heal spontaneously, to very serious forms with fulminant course characterized by perforation, peritonitis, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and shock. Imaging modality in the diagnosis of NEC is historically represented by the plain-film abdominal radiographs which can be performed every 6 hours because of the rapid evolution that may occur in the patient's clinical condition. However ultrasound (US), in recent years, is playing an increasingly important role in the evaluation of early stages of the disease as it provides images in real time of the abdominal structures being able to assess the presence and validity of peristalsis of the bowel loops, detect the thickness of the intestinal wall and the presence of minimal amounts of fluid in the peritoneal cavity. In this paper we review the pathogenesis, clinical presentation and imaging of NEC with a particular attention to the emergent role of US in the diagnosis of the disease.

Chronic peritoneal dialysis in children: the role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of peritoneal catheter obstruction.

PURPOSE: Over the past two decades, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis has emerged as the first-choice dialysis modality in children awaiting for transplantation. Despite the improvements observed in catheter survival over the past several years, the obstruction is one of the reasons for immediate catheter non-function. This study assessed usefulness of ultrasound (US) in visualizing the obstruction of chronic peritoneal dialysis (CPD) catheter and identifying the etiology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2000 and November 2012, 38 patients (20 M, 18 F) were treated with CPD and examined with US. The type of catheter in all subjects was the straight two-cuff Tenckhoff catheter. We evaluated the typical sonographic signs of the most common CPD catheter complications. RESULTS: We had 12/38 cases with catheter malfunction due to its obstruction. In eight patients, US showed the presence of echogenic material fragmented into the lumen and around the distal tip of the catheter. In the other four patients, US demonstrated the displacement of catheter in bowel loops and an amorphous material as homogeneous echoic area around the distal tip. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the effectiveness of US in the assessment of the complications related to intraperitoneal catheters. US is able to identify the catheter obstruction and recognize the etiology (endoluminal strands of fibrin, other materials or the omental wrapping), facilitating a correct therapeutic approach.

Ultrasound evaluation of the enteric duplication cyst: the gut signature.

Gastrointestinal duplication cyst is a rare congenital anomaly that may occur anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract from the tongue to the anus. Such cysts occur most commonly in the small bowel and about half are in the mesenteric border of the ileum. Such cystic duplications communicate only rarely with the intestinal lumen although the cysts are attached to the intestine and may even share a common wall with the adjacent alimentary tract. These lesions can vary in shape, being cystic or tubular, and often show the same structure of the adjacent normal bowel. It is usually asymptomatic and complications are rare but they may include obstruction by volvulus or intussusception, bleeding, infection, and perforation. When diagnosed these lesions should be surgically resected to avoid future possible complications. The authors present a case of enteric cystic duplication and its ultrasound appearance in a 12-month-old Caucasian female infant cause of acute abdominal pain and intestinal obstruction, thus requiring urgent surgery.

Giant colon polyp in a child with suspected inflammatory bowel disease: US findings.

A 6-year-old boy with a history of diarrhea and rectal bleeding was referred to our department where he underwent ultrasound (US) examination for suspected inflammatory bowel disease. US showed the presence of an echoic oval mass measuring about 30 × 24 mm located at the transition between the transverse and descending colon. It moved with the peristaltic waves and was attached to the intestinal wall through a pedicle. Color Doppler showed intralesional blood flow. On the basis of these findings, the patient was suspected of having a colon polyp. This diagnosis was confirmed at subsequent colonoscopy. The mass was removed using a diathermy snare, and histologic examination revealed hamartomatous polyp measuring 32 mm.