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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
Your intestine is shaped like a long tube. Intussusception is a disorder in which one part of your intestine — usually the small intestine — slides inside another part. This is sometimes referred to as "telescoping" because it's similar to the way a collapsible telescope folds together. Intussusception is much more common in children, particularly in infants, than in adults.
Some medical conditions may cause intussusception. But, in many cases, doctors can't determine the exact cause. The older you are when you develop intussusception, the more likely it is that an underlying medical condition is causing the problem.
Children
For most cases of intussusception in children, the cause is unknown. Viral infection or a growth in the intestine, such as a polyp, lymph node or tumor, may trigger it. In the past, some cases of intussusception seemed to be associated with a version of the rotavirus vaccine. Rotavirus is a childhood illness that causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and dehydration. That vaccine was removed from the market in 1999. There's no evidence that the rotavirus vaccine currently available (RotaTeq) causes intussusception.
Adults
In adults, the cause of intussusception may be:
- Noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant) growths
- Scar-like tissue in the intestine (adhesions)
- Surgical scars in the small intestine or colon
- Problems with the movement of food through the digestive tract (motility disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, gastroparesis and Hirschsprung's disease)
- Long-term (chronic) diarrhea
