Acquired ileal atresia in infancy: report of two cases.

Two infants, aged 3 months and 4 months, with acquired ileal atresia in the distal ileum are described. Both of them presented with features of intestinal obstruction following a diarrhoeal episode. In both patients the time interval between the onset of symptoms and detection of atresia at surgery was very short, i.e. 2 weeks. In our opinion, strangulation with subsequent resorption of gangrenous gut could have been the underlying mechanism in both patients. However, a short interval between initiation of symptomatology and detection of atresia prompted us to postulate a thromboembolic phenomenon as the cause of these lesions. While in one patient intussusception was noted on sonography, in the other there was no clear-cut aetiology present except for a high-lying caecum with a long mesentery that might have led to volvulus. We have reviewed the pertinent literature of this very rare sequela of gut inflammation.