The utility of the 24-h delayed film of barium enema for detecting the dysganglionic bowel segment in Hirschsprung's disease.

Background: Preoperative evaluation of the dysganglionic bowel segment is critical for establishing the optimal resection strategy for Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR), which facilitates patient outcomes.

Objective: We set out to determine the utility of the 24-h delayed film of barium retention in predicting the length of dysganglionic bowel segment in HSCR.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study of patients with clinically suspicious HSCR who underwent a preoperative 24-h delayed film of barium enema and were surgically treated from January 2015 to December 2019 was conducted.

Results: Two hundred and 58 patients were enrolled in this study. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (NPVs) of the 24-h delayed film of barium enema to predict the neuropathological segment were 89.1, 91.5, 91.3, and 89.4%, respectively. The Youden index was 80.6%, with a kappa value of 0.806 ( < 0.001). The correlation rate between barium retention level and pathological results was 72.7% (16/22) when aganglionosis was restricted within the mid-distal rectum (short-segment type), increasing to 92.0% (46/50) and 93.5% (174/186) for patients that had aganglionosis extended beyond the mid-distal rectum (classical type) and sigmoid colon (long-segment type), respectively. Lastly, patients younger than 3 months showed a lower correlation rate (72.2%) compared to patients aged 3-12 months (91.0%) and > 12 months (92.6%).

Conclusions: Our investigation of the 24-h delayed film of barium enema performed for patients suspected of having HSCR indicated that the barium retention level remains crucial in predicting dysganglionic bowel segment, which contributes to the decision-making for surgical physicians.