A questionable colon
Colon or question mark: a problem for surgeons not subeditors
30th May 2019
It seems this newborn’s gut has an instinct something is wrong, with his question-mark-shaped colon asking doctors for answers.
At just 24-hours old, the baby boy had abdominal swelling, bilious vomiting and an inability to pass meconium.
Scans showed a dilated bowel, consistent with a distal obstruction, and a distended and shortened colon in the shape of a question mark — a finding consistent with total colonic aganglionosis.
A specimen of his large intestine revealed no ganglion cells and abnormally thickened nerve fibres.
“These findings confirmed the diagnosis of Hirschsprung’s disease, a congenital absence of