Intestinal malrotations: a review and report of thirty cases

Intestinal malrotation is a developmental anomaly affecting the position and peritoneal attachments of the small and large bowels during organogenesis in foetal life. It has been defined as absent or incomplete rotation and fixation of the embryonic gut around the superior mesenteric artery. In the present paper, we review the definition, history, embryology/aetiology, epidemiology, symp-toms and signs, diagnosis and treatment of intestinal malformations. Moreover, we report the records of 30 cases of malrotation admitted to our department over a period of five years. The final intraoperative diagnosis of the cases pre-sented was 53.3 % pure malrotation, 33.3 % malrotation with mid-gut volvulus, 6.7 % malrotation with duodenal atresia, 3.3 % malrotation with Meckel’s diver-ticulum and duodenal atresia, and 3.3 % malrotation and biliary atresia. Preoper-ative imaging studies were performed for 27 cases and surgical management was successfully conducted without any mortality among the cases studied. This article provides an overview of basic and clinical aspects of intestinal malrota-tion. In addition, the signs and symptoms, imaging findings, and final intraoper-ative diagnoses presented by the subjects reported on are of potential use and clinical interest