The importance of mesenteric vascular insufficiency in meconium peritonitis.

The etiology of bowel perforations leading to meconium peritonitis was investigated in an attempt to explain the occurrence of such perforations in the absence of primary intestinal obstruction. Bowel specimens from 22 patients who had presented with meconium peritonitis during a 15-year period, as well as specimens from five patients with intestinal atresia without associated meconium peritonitis, were re-evaluated microscopically. An extensive review of the literature concerning meconium peritonitis, involving 1,084 patients, was compared with the results of a retrospective study of 69 patients from The Netherlands. In approximately 50 per cent of these cases there was no detectable primary cause of the bowel perforation. The pathologic findings, in combination with earlier experimental studies, indicate that vascular insufficiency may result in bowel wall perforation without prior intestinal obstruction. It is suggested that temporary decrease of mesenteric blood flow could lead to intestinal atresia and/or meconium peritonitis.