Symptoms
The onset is usually accompanied with paroxysmals of pains and vomiting. The pains may be very severe and the vomiting projectile. The pain may be mistaken for that of ordinary colic, but it is much more severe and may continue through the entire attack.
The vomiting is persistent, especially at the onset, and occurs as soon as food enters the stomach. In older children it may be stercoraceous after the third or fourth day. It never occurs, however, in infancy. The vomiting is the result of the intestinal obstruction and is adaptative on the part of Innate Intelligence. It is quite obvious that it is better not to have food in the stomach than it is to have it and not be able to complete the process of intestinal digestion.
The character of the stools is of importance. At first the bowel movements may be diarrheal and later there will be no fecal matter, but the stool will contain nothing but blood and mucus. A paroxysm of colicky pain may be followed by a mucous and bloody stool several times daily. At the onset the abdominal walls are soft and relaxed, or may even be retracted. Tympanites may occur about the second or third day.
The symptoms in the acute cases are those of shock. There is an extremely anxious look on the face which is pallid, cold extremities, subnormal temperature and cold perspiration. There is restlessness and in many cases convulsions. Later there will be stupor. A sudden rise in temperature indicates a turn for the worse and may mean death in a short time. In the chronic cases there is marked inanition which progresses very rapidly.