대한대장항문학회

Volvulus of the colon is a twisting of a redundant segment of the colon about it's<br>narrow mesentery and sigmoid volvulus is the most common type. In many developing<br>counteries this disorder is a common cause of obstruction of the intestine and in the<br>western hemisphere it occurs in elderly patients who often have significant coexisting<br>disease. This disorder may spontaneously reduce and recur as a chronic problem, but<br>more frequently it becomes acute by obstruction, which may lead to strangulation and<br>gangrene with high mortality if not treated promptly. Recently We have experienced 5<br>cases of signmoid volvulus, which were all in their twenties and had surgical operation.<br>They had the triad of abdominal pain, distention, and absolute constipation. Plain<br>abdominal roentgenogram was diagnostic in all cases The first line of treatment was<br>nonoperative decompression with rigid sigmoidoscopy and successful in four of five. One<br>Patient had emergency Hartman operation and other four had elective sigmoid resection<br>with primary anastomosis.<br>