Retrograde Jejunogastric Intussusception—A Rare Cause of Hematemesis

Abstract

Retrograde jejunogastric intussusception is a serious complication of gastric surgery which, although rare and little known, is easily diagnosed and treated if its possibility is kept in mind, but which has a 100% mortality if misdiagnosed and not treated surgically. Moroney¹⁷states that "of all the causes of hematemesis, retrograde intussusception must be amongst the rarest—so rare that it is unlikely ever to be seriously considered." Nevertheless, since there is a strong tendency in modern practice to treat massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding during the first 24 hours in a conservative (nonoperative) manner, which in this case is disastrous, I felt that this condition warranted record. That retrograde intussusception is rare is evidenced by the fact that, from the time the first gastroenterostomy was performed in 1881, not a single case was recorded until Bozzi's report in 1914.* From the reporting of the second case in 1917 by Steher