Bowel Atresia and Stenosis

Abstract

Congenital anomalies of the bowel can affect any portion of the gastrointestinal tract. Bowel atresia and stenosis concern abnormal closure, discontinuity or narrowing from the duodenum to sigmoid colon, and the incidence is about 2/10,000 live births. The pathogenesis was previously believed to be an embryologic trouble of bowel recanalization or a disruption compromising small bowel vascular supply, but new genetic hypothesis emerges since a few years to explain the occurrence of bowel atresia and stenosis.