Early postoperative small bowel obstruction is a different clinical entity than postoperative adynamic ileus

Early postoperative small bowel obstruction is a rare clinical entity different from postoperative adynamic ileus. The cases were presented to emphasize the differences between early postoperative small bowel obstruction and postoperative adynamic ileus. In this study, a 14-year-old patient who developed early postoperative (post op. 2. Day) small bowel obstruction after appendectomy was presented. Re-laparotomy was performed on the 7th postoperative day. It was observed that early postoperative small bowel obstruction was due to adhesions which caused significant intestinal loss. Ileostomy was performed and the patient was discharged from hospital uneventfully on the 25th postoperative day after stoma closure. Since symptoms, and signs of early postoperative small bowel obstruction can be confused with those of postoperative adynamic ileus, long term conservative follow-up may result in significant intestinal loss. For this reason, it is important not to delay the re-laparotomy decision