Vanishing gut in infants with gastroschisis

Abstract

Infants born with gastroschisis (GS) in association with intestinal atresia are well described, however, atresia to the extent where none or very little of the midgut remains has rarely been reported. In this paper we present one infant born with a GS defect in combination with total loss of the midgut and another with a tight GS defect with atresia of the proximal and distal midgut at the regions where the bowel had gone through the abdominal wall. On examining these and other case reports in the literature, we realised that there is a GS spectrum, at one end with simple, localised atresia with the rest of the gut exhibiting minimal vascular compromise and at the other a very small or no defect with absence of the entire midgut.