[Late postoperative complications in Hirschsprung's disease (author's transl)]

In more than 5,500 patients operated upon for Hirschsprung's disease which were obtained from the literature, the late complications following the 4 principal operative procedures of Swenson, Duhamel, Rehbein and Soave were compared. After Duhamel's operation, there was a lower incidence of postoperative constipation: 6.7%, compared with an average rate of 9.3%. Rehbein's resection showed the best results in relation to incontinence with a complication rate of 2.1% while the average was 9.8%, also in enterocolitis and diarrhoea (2.4%, average 7.8%) and enuresis (5.1% compared with 9.7%). We found the lowest incidence of late ileus (2.2% to 4.4%) and mortality with the Rehbein method. Judging by the frequency of late complications, the technique of Rehbein's anterior resection seems to be the most commendable.