PurposeAppendicitis is the most common abdominal inflammatory process in children which were sometimes followed by complications including intra-abdominal abscess. This later needs classically a surgical drainage. We evaluated the efficacy of antibiotic treatment and surgical drainage.MethodsHospital records of children treated in our unit for intra-abdominal post appendectomy abscesses over a 6 years period were reviewed retrospectively.ResultsThis study investigates a series of 14 children from 2 to 13 years of age with one or many abscesses after appendectomy, treated between 2002 and 2007. Seven underwent surgery and the others were treated with triple antibiotherapy. The two groups were comparable.For the 7 patients who receive medical treatment alone, it was considered efficient in 6 cases (85%) with clinical, biological and radiological recovery of the abscess. There was one failure (14%). The duration of hospitalization from the day of diagnosis of intra-abdominal abscess was approximately 10.28 days (range 7 to 14 days). In the other group, the efficacy of treatment was considered satisfactory in all cases. The duration of hospitalization was about 13 days (range: 9 to 20).ConclusionCompared to surgical drainage, antibiotic management of intra-abdominal abscesses was a no invasive treatment with shorter hospitalization.

Transmesenteric hernias are extremely rare. A strangulated hernia through a mesenteric opening is a rare operative finding. Preoperative diagnosis still is difficult in spite of the imaging techniques currently available. The authors describe two cases of paediatric patients presenting with bowel obstruction resulting from a congenital mesenteric hernia. The first patient had a 3-cm wide congenital defect in the ileal mesentery through which the sigmoid colon had herniated. The second patient is a newborn infant who presented with symptoms and radiographic evidence of neonatal occlusion. At surgical exploration, a long segment of the small bowel had herniated in a defect in the ileal mesentery. A brief review of epidemiology and anatomy of transmesenteric hernias is included, along with a discussion of the difficulties in diagnosis and treatment of this condition.

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Recurrent urinary tract infections and voiding dysfunction in pediatric population should always be evaluated for congenital bladder diverticulum. Investigations such as abdominal ultrasound, VCUG and nuclear renal scanning, form an important part of preoperative diagnostic work-up and postoperative follow up. Diverticulectomy with ureteral reimplantation in case of high-grade reflux, provides good results without recurrence.

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