Enterogenous cyst causing congenital intestinal obstruction.

Cysts whose walls reproduce completely or incompletely the structure of gut, whether discovered in the wall of the gut, attached to the gut, or even more or less remote from the gut, must have been derived from the gut (Evans, 1929). They originate either in the vitello-intestinal tract or in diverticula normally found in the developing embryonal entoderm (Lewis and Thyng, 1908). One or more of these diverticula may persist as diverticula and increase in size, or they may become closed off from the bowel and form separate cystic structures. They have been found and described in all parts of the alimentary tract from the oesophagus to the sigmoid colon. The commonest site is in relation to the small intestine, with the ileo-caecal angle and the duodenum as the next most common sites. Most of these cysts, when they occur in infancy and childhood, have been found incidentally during post-mortem examinations. In looking through the literature it appears that no case has been found of a cyst being the cause of congenital intestinal obstruction. In adults the cysts present clinically as simple abdominal tumours or as a result of complications. The complications which have been described are (1) intestinal obstruction including pressure, volvulus, intussusception, carcinoma; (2) inflammation, acute and chronic (tuberculous condition of a cyst and related bowel); and (3) neoplastic conditions which may be primary in the cyst or secondary from direct spread from related bowel. The case reported showed an enterogenous cyst in the upper jejunum causing congenital intestinal obstruction with a second large cyst in the lower ileum. Case Report