importance of pathological findings in identification of patients at risk of developing Hirschsprung's disease associated enterocolitis

ABSTRACT

Enterocolitis remains the most serious complication of Hirschsprung's disease, and has been reported in 15% to 50% of cases. Patients are prone to develop relapses despite a defunctioning colostomy and after definitive pull-through procedures. There are several risk factors as delayed diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease, long spastic segment, trisomy 21 and .family history of Hirschsprung's disease. Currently no clinical factor or test is available to predict patients prone to develop postoperative enterocolitis. Thirty-two Hirschsprung's disease patients were studied in an attempt to correlate the histologic changes of the colonic mucosa with the clinical and post-operative course to outline a histological guide line of value in prediction of patients prone to develop clinical enterocolitis