Functional constipation or redundancy of the colon?

OBJECTIVES

Constipation is a common problem in children, and most of the time, the cause is defined as functional. Our hypothesis is that children with functional refractory constipation had anatomic alterations of the colon.

METHODS

All children with chronic refractory constipation who visited our centre underwent accurate clinical examination, contrast enema (CE), anorectal manometry (ARM) and rectal suction biopsies (RSB). In case of functional constipation, three operators measured the size of the colon using radiograms and calculated the ratio based on the width of the second lumbar vertebra. The measurements carried out were compared with those reported in the literature on patients of the same age without constipation.

RESULTS

Over a period of 24 months, 69 patients with chronic refractory constipation, aged between 1 and 14 years, visited our department. A CE was performed on 67, and 2 were excluded because of anal stenosis. Sixty-five underwent anorectal manometry. Rectal suction biopsies were needed in 14 children, and 2 of them were found to have colonic aganglionosis. After a complete evaluation, 57 (82.61%) patients were diagnosed having functional constipation. By comparing the data of the patients with those of normal children reported by the other authors, we found that none of the measurements was statistically significant except for the rectosigmoid length: the mean value in one-year-old patients was 19.03 vs. 9.75, and in older children, it was 19.46 vs. 9.59.

CONCLUSIONS

Recognizing an anatomic anomaly in patients suffering from functional constipation is important for specific treatment, especially when the ratio (rectosigmoid length/L2) is higher than 15.