Megacolon

Clinic

• Megacolon is an abnormal dilation of the colon.
• This leads to hypertrophy of colon.
• The dilation is often accompanied by a paralysis of the peristaltic movements of the bowel.
• In more extreme cases, the feces consolidate into hard masses inside the colon, called fecalomas

Signs / Symptoms

• Prolonged constipation
• Abdominal Bloating / Tenderness / Tympany / Pain,
• Palpation of hard fecal masses

Cause

• Congenital or aganglionic megacolon
• Idiopathic megacolon
• Toxic megacolon
• Megacolon secondary to infection
• Clostridium difficile
• Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease)
• Pheochromocytoma, possibly secondary to its presenting constipation.
• Other neurologic, systemic and metabolic diseases

Aganglionic megacolon

• Also called Hirschsprung's disease,
• It is a congenital disorder of the colon in which nerve cells of the myenteric plexus in its walls, also known as ganglion cells, are absent.