Abstracts
1998 Digestive Disease Week

#993

OGILVIE'S SYNDROME IN THE SURGICAL PATIENT: A NEW THERAPEUTIC MODALITY. C.R. Schermer, J.J. Hanosh, M.Davis, D.E. Pitcher University of New Mexico, Health Sciences Center Albuquerque, NM.

Acute colonic pseudo-obstruction, Ogilvie's Syndrome, most often appears as a complication of other clinical conditions. It is characterized by massive colonic dilatation in the absence of a mechanical cause. Therapy for this condition has traditionally been colonoscopic decompression via a flexible colonoscope. We present a series of ten patients who developed Ogilvie's syndrome while hospitalized for blunt trauma (8), burns (1) and hip replacement (1). The mean cecal size pre-enema was 12.7 cm (range 10-14 cm). The mean post enema cecal size was 7.7 cm (range 6-10 cm). All ten patients underwent cystografin enema as the primary modality of decompression. Nine of the ten patients required repeat enema and only one required colonoscopic decompression. No patient required operative intervention for either the colonic pseudo-obstruction or its therapy. In all patients we were able to rule out a mechanical cause of large bowel obstruction. We feel the safety, efficacy, and ease of this procedure make systografin enema an optimal first line treatment of acute colonic pseudo-obstruction.

Copyright 1996 - 1998, SSAT, Inc. Revised 29 June 1998.