Waiting more than 6 hours from diagnosis does not negatively impact the success rate of pneumatic ileocolic intussusception reduction.

Background: Ileocolic intussusception is the most common cause of bowel obstruction in young children. There is an ongoing debate about whether it is a middle-of-the-night emergency and if delays in intervention have a significant impact on outcome.

Objective: To determine the relationship between the time elapsed from diagnosis to pneumatic reduction and the success rate of the procedure.

Materials and methods: A retrospective study was performed on pediatric patients who underwent fluoroscopically guided pneumatic intussusception reduction during a 10-year period. Patients were categorized into groups according to the time elapsed between diagnosis and reduction with the following time intervals: ≤ 3 h, 3-6 h, and > 6 h. A chi-square test analyzed the association between the time elapsed from diagnosis to attempted reduction and the success rate.

Results: The study population consisted of 78 males and 38 females. Median age was 22.5 months (2-129 months). Median time elapsed between diagnosis and attempted reduction was 149 min (25-1389 min; IQR, 261 min). The overall success rate of pneumatic reduction was 85% (108/127, 95% CI 79-91%). The recurrence rate was 9.4% (95% CI 4.2-15%). Within the three intervals studied (0-3 h, 3-6 h, and more than 6 h), the success rates were 87% (61/70, 95% CI 77-93%), 80% (24/30, 95% CI 63-90%), and 85% (23/27, 95% CI 68-94%), respectively. The chi-square test yielded a statistic of 0.84 with a P-value of 0.66, indicating no significant correlation between the time elapsed from diagnosis to reduction and the success of the procedure.

Conclusion: There is no association between the time elapsed from ileocolic intussusception diagnosis to pneumatic reduction and the success of the procedure.