Surgical Correction of Hirschsprung's Disease in Children Using the Soave-Boley Technique with Manual Colorectal Anastomosis

Abstract

Introduction. Current trends in surgical treatment of Hirschsprung's disease are aimed at minimally invasive interventions. However, the experience of using Soave-Boley procedure in surgical treatment of Hirschsprung's disease in children of different ages is valuable in the arsenal of differentiated approach to the treatment of this pathology.
 The objective of the research was to evaluate the results of surgical correction of Hirschsprung's disease in children using the Soave-Boley technique with manual colorectal anastomosis.
 Materials and Methods. The analysis of surgical treatment of 1,187 children with different forms of Hirschsprung’s disease aged from birth to 18 years over the period 1980-2020 was conducted in the National Children's Specialized Hospital“ Okhmatdyt”. Surgical correction of Hirschsprung's disease using the Soave-Boley technique was performed in 597 children. Before surgery, 156 patients underwent the first stage of treatment that consisted in the creation of a protective colostomy; in 441 cases, this intervention was performed without an intestinal stoma; the benefits of the Soave-Boley technique were evaluated.
 Results. All the patients survived. In 15 (2.51%) out of 597 children, in the early postoperative period, there were observed: retrocolic hematoma (n = 2), retrocolic abscess (n = 7), anastomotic leak (n = 2), adhesive intestinal obstruction (n = 3), intussusception (n = 1). Fourteen (2.36%) patients developed surgical complications in the long-term period: residual aganglionosis (n = 9), anastomotic stenosis (n = 4) and coloptosis. Repeated Soave-Boley operation with manual colorectal anastomosis was successfully performed in 26 (4.362%) patients after primary correction of Hirschsprung's disease using different methods. Periodic episodes of fecal smearing in the remote period in 45 (7.53%) children were eliminated by conservative treatment. The success of this technique is confirmed by a much lower number of early (2.51%) and late (2.36%) postoperative surgical complications, as compared to those after using other methods of open surgical correction - 17.52% and 16.35%, respectively.
 Conclusions. Surgical correction of Hirschsprung's disease in children using the Soave-Boley technique with manual colorectal anastomosis allows better control over applying each suture, anatomical joining the edges of the bowel, and reducing trauma to the rectal mucosa, which ensures the high reliability of colorectal anastomosis; it is the most effective way of radical correcting Hirschsprung' s disease in children in an open way in one-stage or two-stage interventions, and this technique is the operation of choice for secondary surgical correction of Hirschsprung's disease.