THE OCCURRENCE OF CHRONIC INTUSSUSCEPTION IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Probably no other symptom of childhood is more common than abdominal pain localized at, or just above, the navel. It corresponds to headache in adult life in the relative frequency of its occurrence, and often in its significance. This analogy, with some probability, is due to the fact that the chief center of the child's sympathetic nervous network lies in this location, which in early life has a more dominant rôle than at any other time. Whereas, in older patients the onset of disease is heralded by pain in the head, in children its initiation is frequently marked by pain in the abdomen. To distinguish such symptomatic pain from that significant of pathologic changes of the abdomen requires thoughtful consideration on the part of any practitioner, whether he is an internist, pediatrician or surgeon. Because of this fact, it does not seem inappropriate for me to discuss chronic intussusception, although