Waugh’s Syndrome: Blessing in Disguise

• Main Authors: Chinmaya Ranjan Behera, Subrat K Mohanty
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited 2014-10-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research
• Subjects: intestinal malrotation; intussusception; meckel’s diverticulum
• Online Access: https://jcdr.net/articles/PDF/5051/9557_CE(Ra)_F(Sh)_PF1(SNAK)_PFA(Sh)_PF2(PAG).pdf
• ISSN: 2249-782X; 0973-709X

Waugh’s syndrome is the association between intestinal malrotion and intussusceptions. We report a case of Waugh’s syndrome in a one year old child who presented to us with acute bowel obstruction and bleeding per rectum. Due to malrotation, there was easy prolapsing of ileocolic region into the nonfixed ascending colon and the intussusceptum advanced into the descending colon and rectum without compromising vascularity of the bowel. In most of the cases the intussusceptum advancing into the rectum is associated with bowel gangrene even when ceacum is mobile. But in our case, mobile caecum with malrotation proved to be blessing in disguise in preventing such a complication. A Meckel’s diverticulum was also an incidental finding in this case. Waugh's syndrome is missed in cases of close reduction of intussusception and may be a reason for recurrence. Though a rare entity, the probability of Waugh’s syndrome should be kept in mind during surgery, during hydrostatic reduction of intussusceptions, and in case of recurrent ileocolic intussusceptions.