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Twenty children, aged between six years and fourteen years were seen and treated for duodenal obstruction at the Department of Surgery, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, Nigeria, between 1st January 1990 and 31st December, 1990. Both extrinsic and intrinsic factors caused the duodenal obstruction. All the patients were surgically treated and all survived. The main presenting clinical features, diagnosis and treatment are discussed. Follow up on some of the patients has been erratic because of patients defaulting on clinic appointments. In spite of successful surgical treatment and relief of symptoms, growth retardation, as shown by height and weight measurements, persisted relatively in patients in whom it was present at the time of diagnosis and treatment.

One hundred sixty-one patients with mechanical small bowel obstruction were treated within 2 years at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. The various causes of obstruction fairly typify the patterns of mechanical small bowel obstruction in Nigeria, except for slight differences in some parts of the country. The fairly high mortality rate reflects the difficulties encountered in management of the patients. Measures to reduce mortality are suggested.