Extended myectomy-myotomy. A therapeutic alternative for total intestinal aganglionosis

That total intestinal aganglionosis (extended Hirschsprung's disease) is uniformly incompatible with life as reported in 1985, is challenged by this series of patients treated over the last 7 years with an alternative therapy, extended myectomy-myotomy of the small bowel.

A total of 16 neonates worldwide presented with intestinal obstruction secondary to total (extending to the stomach) or near total (to 40 cm of jejunum) intestinal aganglionosis confirmed at one or more leveling operations.

A patient questionnaire was answered by the surgeon of all 16 patients.

The sex distribution was eight boys and eight girls. The definitive operation included extending an antimesenteric myectomy-myotomy from the ganglionic-aganglionic transition zone for variable lengths, the operative design being to create sufficient small bowel length to support life (40-cm minimum, total small bowel maximum). The myectomized bowel was terminated as an end-stroma or as an isolated jejuno-ileal segment. Ten of 16 patients have survived (62.5%) whose length of ganglionated bowel varies from 0 to 40 cm (mean, 12.4 cm; median, 6.0 cm). Six patients have died from 1 to 33 months after operation (mean, 9.5 months; median, 5.0 months) of gut-induced infection (n = 5) and respiratory failure (n = 1); their ganglionated bowel length was similar to survivors (range, 0-26 cm; mean, 9.2 cm; median, 8.0 cm). Of the 16 patients, 15 have received enteral nutrients through the myectomized bowel. Of ten survivors, strikingly two are totally gut nourished (2 cm, 7-cm length of ganglionated bowel), six receive from 1/5 to 4/5 of total calories enterally, and one receives minimal enteral feeding.

From these patients we have learned that (1) extended myectomy-myotomy relieves the obstruction of extended Hirschsprung's disease; (2) aganglionic bowel after extended myectomy-myotomy acts as a passive conduit for proximally propulsed nutrients; and (3) aganglionic bowel after extended myectomy-myotomy undergoes adaptive change and is capable of absorbing life-supporting nutrients. These data demonstrate extended myectomy-myotomy to be a therapeutic option for otherwise fatal extended Hirschsprung's disease, either as a potentially definitive therapy or as a putative bridge to intestinal transplantation.