Sapovirus Gastroenteritis in Young Children Presenting as Distal Small Bowel Obstruction: A Report of 2 Cases and Literature Review

Abdominal pain and distention in children are commonly encountered problems in the pediatric emergency room. The majority of complaints are found to be due to benign entities such as gastroenteritis and constipation. What confounds these diagnoses is that young children often deliver a challenging and unreliable exam. Thus, it often becomes exceedingly problematic to differentiate these benign conditions from surgical conditions requiring prompt attention including small or large bowel obstruction, volvulus, and appendicitis. The cases highlight Sapovirus as a cause of severe abdominal distention and vomiting in children and this report is the first to describe and demonstrate the impressive radiologic findings that may be associated with this infection. Surgeons should heed this information and hesitate to emergently operate on similar children.