Imaging Findings of Gastrointestinal Emergency in Infants and Young Children

• Main Author: Ji Young Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Korean Society of Radiology 2020-07-01
• Series: 대한영상의학회지
• Subjects: abdomen; acute; intussusception; appendicitis; volvulus of midgut; meckel diverticulum
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3348/jksr.2020.81.4.794

Acute abdomen is a condition with sudden abdominal pain that may require immediate surgical treatment. The causes of acute abdomen in pediatric patients are diverse, and can be categorized in broad range from diseases requiring surgery to diseases requiring medication or clinical observation only. The role of the imaging study in children with acute abdomen is to distinguish between patients who need medication and patients who need surgery by identifying diseases that cause abdominal pain, if possible. Since intussusception and appendicitis are the leading causes of acute abdomen requiring surgical treatment in children, it is important to exclude intussusception in young infants complaining of acute abdominal pain and exclude acute appendicitis in older children with acute abdomen. In this paper, we introduce intussusception, acute appendicitis, midgut volvulus, Meckel’s diverticulum and duplication cyst, which has characteristic imaging finding of the disease that can cause acute abdomen in pediatric patients.