Background: In the validation of new imaging technology for children with Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR), basic anatomical parameters of the bowel wall must be established specifically for this patient group.
Aim: To explore differences in histoanatomical layers of bowel wall, comparing ganglionic and aganglionic bowel walls, and to examine if the bowel wall thickness is linked to patient weight.
Methods: This was an observational study of bowel specimens from children weighing 0-10 kg, operated on consecutively during 2018-2020. Ganglionic and aganglionic bowel walls were measured in digitalized microscopy images from 10 sites per trans-sectional specimen and compared regarding the thickness of their histoanatomical layers.
Results: Bowel walls were measured in 21 children. Full bowel wall thickness did not differ between aganglionic and ganglionic bowel (2.20 vs 2.04; p = 0.802) while weight at surgery correlated positively with both ganglionic and aganglionic bowel wall thickness (r = 0.688 and 0.849, respectively), and age at surgery with ganglionic bowel wall thickness (r = 0.517). In aganglionic segments, the muscularis externa layer was thicker compared to that in ganglionosis (0.45 vs 0.31 mm, p = 0.012) whereas the muscularis interna was thinner (0.45 vs 0.62 mm, p < 0.001). A diagnostic index was identified whereby a lower ratio of muscularis interna/externa thickness followed by a thinner muscularis interna differed between aganglionic and ganglionic bowel in all specimens.
Conclusion: Thicknesses of the bowel wall's muscle layers differ between aganglionic and ganglionic bowel walls in children with HSCR. These findings support a diagnostic index that could be validated for transfer to instant diagnostic imaging techniques.
Level of evidence: Diagnostic: 3.
Keywords: Aganglionosis; Bowel wall; Children; Ganglionosis; Hirchsprung’s disease; Histopathology.
© 2022. The Author(s).