Congenital pouch colon in females

Abstract

From January 1995 to March 1998, congenital pouch colon (CPC) with anorectal agenesis was diagnosed in ten girls who were classified into four groups based on the length of normal colon proximal to the colonic pouch. Of six girls with little or no normal colon, one had a cloacal anomaly while five had a colovesical or colovestibular fistula along with a completely bifid uterus and cervix and a septate vagina. Initial surgery consisted of ligation of the fistula and subtotal pouch excision with tubularization of the remaining colon in four girls, ileostomy after excision of a gangrenous pouch in one, and window colostomy in another. None of the patients had a sacral abnormality or associated major malformation. Definitive surgery using the posterior sagittal approach consisted of a pull-through of the tubularized colon in three girls (including one in whom one-stage cloacal reconstruction was performed), the ileum in one, and the proximal colon in another. The four girls with a longer length of normal colon had an associated vestibular fistula. In these, a colostomy was constructed just proximal to the pouch with definitive surgery in two patients consisting of excision of the pouch and pull-through of the proximal colon. Definitive surgery was well tolerated in all seven patients. The embryogenesis of this condition and the related genitourinary tract abnormalities are discussed.