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Meconium Ileus

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Neonatal Surgery

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Abstract

Meconium ileus (MI) is neonatal intestinal obstruction caused by protein-rich, inspissated meconium in the terminal ileum. This viscid meconium adheres to the bowel wall, causing an intra-luminal obstruction (sometimes referred to as obturator-type obstruction). Its incidence is approximately 1:10,000 live births [1] within the white population but lower in other races. Historically, MI has been almost exclusively associated with cystic fibrosis (CF); however this dogma has been challenged by some published series that report 21–46% of their cases did not have CF [2, 3]. 10–20% of children born with CF present as MI [4, 5].

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  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Chelsea Children’s Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Philip Corbett & Amulya Saxena

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  1. Philip Corbett
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Correspondence to Amulya Saxena .

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  1. Pediatric Surgery, S.Orsola Hospital, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Mario Lima

  2. Pediatric Surgeon FMH EBPS, Lausanne-Pully, Switzerland

    Olivier Reinberg

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Corbett, P., Saxena, A. (2019). Meconium Ileus. In: Lima, M., Reinberg, O. (eds) Neonatal Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93534-8_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93534-8_19

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