Staged laparoscopic-assisted pull-through for Hirschsprung's disease.

The authors report 3 cases of Hirschsprung's disease that were treated by laparoscopic-assisted transanal pull-through after a colostomy already had been performed. Two of these patients presented with severe enterocolitis, and a primary laparoscopic-assisted single-stage transanal pull through was not feasible. The third patient had a colostomy performed and was referred to us for a definitive procedure. Many centers over the world now perform laparoscopic-assisted single-stage pull-through as a primary modality of management for Hirschsprung's disease. But for a country like India, where patients with Hirschsprung's disease present or are referred late and frequently with enterocolitis, performing a primary procedure is not possible in all cases. However, this has been used as the definitive procedure after performing a diverting colostomy and histopathologic determination of the length of the aganglionic bowel. The procedure gives excellent results and permits early postoperative feeding, early hospital discharge, and good cosmetic results.