Abstract

Intestinal malrotation is an anomaly of intestinal rotation which occurs during foetal development and usually presents in the neonatal period but may sometimes appear later in life. Its rarity in teenagers portends a diagnostic dilemma for both the surgeon and radiologist hence a high index of suspicion is crucial in diagnosis. We report two cases, a 17-year- old male and an 18-year-old female, who had recurrent episodes of colicky abdominal pain and bilious vomiting due to intestinal malrotation detected at surgery despite doing a preoperative abdominal computed tomography scan (for patient 1) and upper gastrointestinal contrast studies (for patient 2) with neither entertaining a diagnosis of malrotation. These cases emphasize the difficulties and mistakes in diagnosis of intestinal malrotation presenting outside the neonatal period.