Complicated Intestinal Atresias

In this group of 45 intestinal atresia patients (duodenum, 16; jejunum, 24; ileum five) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, individual hospitalizations ranged up to 245 days. Twelve patients required multiple operations, and the overall mortality rate was 22% (ten patients). While the patients with duodenal atresia had the greatest incidence of other congenital anomalies, including Down's syndrome, the patients with jejunal atresia presented with the most challenging surgical problems. Of the 24 jejunal atresia patients, only three had a single, simple area of obstruction. The remainder were complicated by other gastrointestinal lesions (five patients), by multiple areas of atresia (seven patients) including those in one surviving patient with 22 separate atretic segments, and by the Christmas tree deformity (nine patients). Intraoperative management of the complicated atresia should include: 1) grouping of multiple atresias during resection, 2) adequate resection of the dilated proximal atonic loop, 3) end-to-end anastomoses, 4) avoidance of intraluminal catheters, 5) additional resection of a segment of the distal loop in the Christmas tree deformity and 6) consideration of the shish kebab technique for multiple atretic webs. Postoperative management should involve early intravenous nutrition and repeated exploration for continued obstruction.