Congenital anomalies of the alimentary tract in adulthood are very troublesome experiences in general surgeons due to their difficult or poor preoperative confirmation of anomalous pathology and unexpected intraoperative findings. The purpose of
this
report is to determine the common features that may facilitate the recognition of the congenital alimentary tract anomaly in adults. We experienced 50 patients who had underwent operations for congenital gastrointestinal anomalies. The most
common
condition was adult choledochal cysts(21) and next was meckel's diverticulum with inflammation(*). Others were duodenal diverticulitis, gallbladder agenesis, Jiirschsprung';s disease, interstinal malrotation, colonic duplication, ectopic
pancreas,
annular pancreas, mesenteric defect, esophageal duplication, omental cyst and jejunal diverticulum. Ther were no older age limit that would exclude congenital anomalies. The age distribution of patients were 17 to 83 years with a mean 37.3 years.
Only
29 patients (choledochal cyst, Hirschsprung's disease, duodenal diverticulum, omental cyst and esophageal duplication) were able to be established the correct diagnosis before operation, so the overall preoperaive diagnosis rate wa s54%(29/50).
Conculsively, more apprehension and knowledge about congenital anomalous disease would be needed to make diagnosis of this rare diseases entity as precise as possible.
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