Early Outcomes of Hirschsprung's Disease after Definitive Surgery: A Ten-year Experience

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to examine the characteristics of Hirschsprung’s Disease (HD) in patients aged<18 who underwent surgical procedure at Dr. Zainoel Abidin (RSUDZA) General Hospital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, between January 2010 and December 2020. Methods: This retrospective study collected and analyzed data from medical records of 18-year-old or younger children (n = 180) diagnosed with HD at RSUDZA. The surgical procedures included the Duhamel procedure, Soave procedure, the Soave Transanal Endorectal Pull-through (TEPT) procedure, and the Swenson TEPT procedure. Early outcomes of the surgery were then compared between males and females. The comparrative analysis was determined based on Chi-square analysis, where p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: There were 111 (61.7%) male patients and 69 (38.3%) female patients, with a mean age of 15.2 months. The Soave TEPT is the most frequently performed procedure (91.7%). Emerging clinical manifestations include constipation (176; 97.8%) and soiling (171; 95%). Preoperative barium enema and postoperative pathological examination confirmed that almost all patients (99.4%) had an aganglionic segment confined to the rectosigmoid area. The average length of operation was 69.7 ± 65 minutes and average bleeding time was 5.4 ± 34 mL. The average discharge time was 3.3 ± 73.3 days. No significant difference was found in post-surgery complications between males and females (p>0.5). The immediate complications were not associated with surgical methods (p = 0.83). Conclusion: Our descriptive study has suggested the Soave TEPT technique as appropriate to manage HD. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.