Diagnosis and treatment of Hirschsprung’ disease. Review of 29 cases

Abstract

We present the results obtained with 29 patients diagnosed and treated for Hirschsprung' disease during the last 15 years in the Department of Paediatric Surgery of the Central Hospital of Asturias. We indicate the methods employed in order to get to the final diagnosis based on the symptoms, radiology and the anatomicopathological study of rectal or intraabdominal biopsies carried out by means of laparotomy. The different types of treatment are studied, ranging from the conservative method over the colostomy to the final method of abdominal pull-through, not forgetting, in certain concrete cases, the efficiency of sphinteromiectomy. We have evaluated the complications during the illness, of which the most serious one is enterocolitis, indicating the complications inherent in surgery, which may occur inmediately or at a later stage.