Seven years' experience with idiopathic unremitting chronic constipation.

Two hundred sixty patients with severe chronic constipation were studied by rectal biopsy, barium enema, and anorectal manometry. None had any medical, neurologic, or anatomic cause for their complaint. All biopsies showed presence of ganglion cells and absence of hypertrophied nerves.

Deficient neurogenic innervation of the myenteric plexus with normal submucous plexus involving the entire small and large bowel.

A newborn presented with a picture of intestinal obstruction. Multiple biopsies of the small and large bowel showed an unusual neurogenic innervation. The myenteric plexus of Auerbach was severely depleted of ganglion cells and nerve fibers, while the submucous plexus of Meissner was normally innervated.

Postoperative functional and manometric evaluation of patients with Hirschsprung's disease.

Sixty-two patients with Hirschsprung's disease (operated on according to Duhamel, Swenson, or Soave) were evaluated for quality of defecation and studied manometrically. Follow-up was 30 years. Stools were normal in 30% to 50% of patients, while the rest had either constipation, loose, or increased frequency of stools per day.

Congenital liver cyst presenting as congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

A 5-day-old infant was found to have an unusual presentation of a congenital liver cyst. The cyst arose from the left lobe of the liver and herniated into the left thoracic cavity through a congenital defect at the central tendinous portion of the diaphragm. The association between a congenital liver cyst and the location of the diaphragmatic hernia suggests that the abnormality occurred during very early embryonic development when the liver rapidly expands and extends into the septum transversum at the base of the heart.