Copyright
©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Feb 27, 2019; 11(2): 101-111
Published online Feb 27, 2019. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v11.i2.101
Published online Feb 27, 2019. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v11.i2.101
Acquired segmental colonic hypoganglionosis in an adult Caucasian male: A case report
Allan MF Kwok, Andrew B Still, Department of Surgery, Wollongong Hospital, Wollongong NSW 2500, Australia
Kimberly Hart, Department of Anatomical Pathology, Wollongong Hospital, Wollongong NSW 2500, Australia
Author contributions: Kwok AM and Still AB were the patient’s treating surgeons, reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting. Hart K was the pathologist who prepared the anatomical specimen and histopathological report and provided macroscopic and microscopic images for review.
Informed consent statement: Consent was obtained directly from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Allan MF Kwok, BSc MBBS FRACS, Colorectal Fellow, Department of Surgery, Wollongong Hospital, Locked Bag 8808, South Coast Mail Centre, Wollongong NSW 2521, Australia. amf.kwok@gmail.com
Telephone: +61-2-42225000 Fax: +61-2-42551337
Received: January 16, 2019
Peer-review started: January 17, 2019
First decision: January 26, 2019
Revised: February 1, 2019
Accepted: February 21, 2019
Article in press: February 22, 2019
Published online: February 27, 2019
Peer-review started: January 17, 2019
First decision: January 26, 2019
Revised: February 1, 2019
Accepted: February 21, 2019
Article in press: February 22, 2019
Published online: February 27, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: We describe the rare case of a 31 year-old man who presented with severe abdominal pain, haematochezia and a recent change in bowel habits who was found to have colitis affecting the transverse, descending and sigmoid colon on computed tomography. Despite an exhaustive panel of investigations no definite cause could be found for this. Partial colectomy was performed due to failure of medical management and histological examination revealed segmental hypoganglionosis. Previous reports in the literature have proposed the possible role of infective, autoimmune or ischaemic conditions in inciting a pathological chronic inflammatory response with resultant ganglionic destruction.