Intestinal atresia.

Forty-five patients with intestinal atresia, including 20 with duodenal, 21 with jejunoileal, and 3 with colonic obstruction, were encountered at the Yale-New Haven Hospital between 1970 and 1976. The overall survival rate in the 43 operated cases was 93 per cent. The major reasons for the excellent operative survival with this malformation include: (1) the care received in a regional neonatal center; (2) the early recognition and appropriate case selection, denying operation unless mandated in babies with duodenal atresia and trisomy 21; (3) primary repair using modern surgical techniques which minimize anastomotic complications and the "blind-loop" and "short gut syndrome"; and (4) the use of uncomplicated long-term total parenteral nutrition in approximately one-half of operated cases.