Intestinal obstruction in children: could it be congenital abdominal bands?

Chronic abdominal pain is the most commonly seen condition in the pediatric population. Many causes can be successfully managed by conservative treatment; nevertheless, surgical intervention is sometimes inevitable. Among many surgical conditions, such as appendicitis as the most frequent cause, one is also to think about congenital abdominal bands. We report a case of a 10-year-old boy with chronic abdominal pain, who suddenly developed clinical and radiologic signs of intestinal obstruction. The cause of chronic abdominal pain as well as the intestinal obstruction was revealed during the operation: 2 congenital abdominal bands, trapping the gut convolutes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of 2 bands in a single patient.