[Entero-enteral invagination of the small intestine in adults. A rare cause of "uncertain abdomen"].

The present paper reports on a 43-year-old female patient who complained over a number of weeks of paroxysms of crampy pain in the mesogastrium. The diagnosis of ileoileal invagination was only made after she had been admitted to hospital for the third time. The following false diagnoses had been made during the 4-week course of the condition: "pyelonephritis", "acute appendicitis", "chronic appendicitis" and, most recently "psychosomatic abdominal distress". The patient was initially treated with antibiotics and finally with psychotropic drugs. Eventually ultrasound suggested the diagnosis of invagination of the small intestine, which was then verified by conventional barium follow-through radiography. The patient subsequently underwent resection of a segment of the small intestine. Entero-enteric invagination is a very rare event in adults, in which a single (often malignant) cause is identified as triggering the invagination. Peristalsis and ingested food push the tumor distad, thus acting as a motor for invagination. The preferred localizations are the junctions between freely moving segments to retroperitoneally fixed segments (e.g., ileocecal region). Ultrasound of the abdomen is the examination of choice for diagnosis of enteroenteric invagination. Surgical resection of the invagination and its cause (generally tumors) is indicated in adults.