Chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. A surgical approach.

Chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction is an increasingly recognized syndrome in which patients usually present with an acute or chronic history suggestive of intestinal obstruction, although no obstructing lesion is found at surgery. The diagnosis can be suspected in most cases from the clinical presentation. A diagnostic evaluation should be undertaken and exploratory laparotomy avoided if the diagnosis is confirmed on the basis of the radiographic and manometric data. If, in the acute presentation, exploratory laparotomy proves unavoidable, and dilated, nonmechanically obstructed bowel is found, a full-thickness biopsy specimen should usually be taken and the abdomen closed. A carefully chosen, palliative procedure should be reserved for patients who have well defined clinicoanatomic patterns of involvement, and who are incapacitated by their symptoms despite medical management.