Once the diagnosis of intussusception is made, there are often delays in 1) getting the patient to a center where reduction can be performed and 2) getting the staff available to perform an air enema, especially during evenings and nights. Previous studies have shown worse outcomes when there is longer than a 24 hour delay in reduction. This was a retrospective single center study looking at 175 cases of intussusception and evaluating the time between the radiology final read of intussusception and the timing of reduction and if enema based reduction was successful. In this group of patients, there was no statistically significant difference in reduction efficacy, requirement for surgical reduction or complication rate (bowel resection or perforation) in the patients studied which included delay intervals up to 8 hours. Successful first attempt reductions ranged from 72-81% in each study group (1hr, 1-3hr, 3-6hr and 6+ hr). The caveat to this study is that there were only 11 patients included in the 6-8 hour group. This study also did not take into account the timing from symptom onset to reduction time. Bottom line: More evidence is needed, but this small study provides evidence that up to 8 hours from radiology diagnosis of intussusception to the 1st reduction attempt was not less efficient compared to those with an attempt in under 1 hour.
References
Williams, J, Woodward C, Royall I et al. Outcomes in pediatric patients with documented delays between ileocolic intussusception diagnosis and therapeutic enema attempt: evaluation of reduction efficacy and complication rates. Emergency Radiology. July 2022.
