Meckel's diverticulum has several known complications including diverticulitis and perforation. The presence of mesodiverticular band or a band from the diverticulum to the anterior abdominal wall is also described and can cause obstruction or rotation of the small bowel leading to volvulus. Meckel's diverticulum is also well known as the lead point for intussusception. It may be lined by ectopic gastric mucosa and can cause life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding. We report a neonate who presented with acute intestinal obstruction secondary to a large, mobile Meckel's diverticulum which due to a direct compression effect on the adjacent small bowel caused mechanical intestinal obstruction. Diagnosis was confirmed at laparoscopy, and treated by curative surgical resection. This is the first report of a large mobile Meckel's diverticulum causing small bowel obstruction due to direct compression that was managed by minimally invasive surgical resection.
Meckel's diverticulum is a relatively common gastrointestinal entity which occasionally causes complications. Meckel's diverticulum is classically described to mimic acute appendicitis when inflamed as well as being a cause of unexplained luminal gastrointestinal bleeding. An unusual cause of spontaneous non traumatic haemoperitoneum found during surgery performed for a suspected acute appendicitis in a 22-year old female is described. The patient was found to have a significant haemoperitoneum due to a bleeding serosal vessel of a Meckel's diverticulum. The diverticulum was routinely excised. It was macroscopically and histologically devoid of inflammation. The bleeding vessel was not found to be abnormal or part of an arteriovenous malformation.
Localised dilatation of a segment of the intestine without any macroscopically-identifiable cause is rare, and has been reported in association with omphalocoele in only 14 children up to 2006. In most of these cases, the segmental intestinal dilatation (SID) was either diagnosed incidentally, or due to presentation with partial or complete intestinal obstruction. We report, for the first time, a 37-week-old neonate with bowel perforation in SID associated with omphalocoele. In our case, a long thin vessel that resembled the mesodiverticular vessel of a Meckel's diverticulum was present in the dilated segment, supporting the view that SID and Meckel's diverticulum may be embryologically related.