Results of the Surgical Treatment in Children with Hirschprung Disease: A 12-Year Experience

Objective: In the treatment of Hirschsprung’s disease, many surgical techniques have been developed and modified including laparotomy, resection of the affected colon segment, and pull-through of the functional bowel segment to the anus. Conventional surgical methods have many early and late postoperative complications, albeit at a reduced rate today. In this study, it was aimed to compare the treatment results of children with Hirschsprung Disease who were operated with single or two-stage techniques in our department. Method: Hospital records of the patients operated for Hirschsprung disease were retrospectively evaluated. Demografic characteristics, findings of physical and rectal examinations, X-rays findings, rectal biopsy results, surgical treatment methods and outcomes were analyzed. Results: Fifty-two children including 41-male (78.8%) and 11-female (21.2%) patients with age ranging from 1-day to 5-year and mean age of 6.8-day in neonates and 6.3-month in others were enrolled in the study. All patients presented with acute or subacute intestinal obstruction. Levels were observed on supine abdominal radiographs in all; transition zone and retention of opaque material were observed on opaque enema or retention radiographs.In patients whose rectal biopsies revealed aganglionic megacolon two staged procedures were performed including initial colostomy followed by definitive procedure of Duhamel with stapler in 30, and Soave in 12, and Swenson in 1 patient. Nine patients were operated with one-stage endorectal pull-through technique. The complication rate in 43 patients with Hirschsprung disease managed by two staged operative procedure was (78.8%), and it was 11.1% in 9 cases that underwent transanal endorectal pullthrough procedure. It was learned that effective anal dilatation was not performed in 22-patients who had postoperative enterocolitis attacks. Conclusion: In addition to the low complication rate, the morbidity rates in the transanal endorectal pull-through method, which achieved successful results with only one procedure, were very low compared to multiple-stage operations.