Meckel Diverticulum.Presentation of cases

Abstract

Meckel's diverticulum is the most frecuent congenital anomalia of the small intestine. It's the result of an incomplete obliteration of the omphalomesenteric duct. It's unique, true and it's located on the antimesenteric border at 90cm from the last ileum. The fundamental objective of this work was determine the incidence of this entity in the General Surgical Service of the Universitary Hospital “Dr. Mario Muñoz Monroy” of Colón, Matanzas Province during the period between January/1977 and December/1999. Thrity-five sick patients were presented where a surgical intervention was practiced for this pathology (0,4% of incidence). The greatest frequency was in the male sex and the age fluctuation was between 5 and 73 years. The perforation, the inflammation and the obstruction of the intestinal transit were the most frequent complications of the diverticulum and allowed its diagnosis during the urgent laparotomies in 66% of the cases, in the remaining 34% the diagnosis was found casually during the non-urgent laparotomies for other reasons. The most frequently used surgical technique was the diverticulectomy (77%). The anatomic pathological study of the surgical specimens demonstrated heterotopic mucous in 40% of the cases. The postoperational evolution of all the patients was very good and without complications inherent to the realized procedure. Meckel's diverticulum is an entity to which the general surgeon faces with relative frequency. For this reason, the actualization of this theme is always necessary.