1983 Volume 19 Issue 6 Pages 1087-1091
In pediatric surgical field, creation of a double barrel colostomy is the most common surgical procedure to save the patient. In this procedure, distal colon is unused and it occasionally tends to be atrophic. Whereas, there is a high incidence of complications following closure of clostomy; i. e., wound infection, leakage or stenosis of the anastomosis, and fistula formation. Since one of the causative problems for these complications is considered to be the difference in the diameter between proximal and distal colon at the anastomosis, we then attempted the repeat installation of agar solution into the distal colon prior to colostomy closure for widening the unused colon. The patient who received agar installation was 5 months male infant. He had undergone a double barrel ileostomy for mechanical ileus caused by anastmotic disorder for the ileal atresia in other institution. Daily installations' of 10 or 20ml of agar solution three times a day was continued for 45 days before colostomy closure. Although the diameter of distal colon was not so large at colostomy closure, the colonic wall was thickened providing easier anastomotic procedure. No complication was experienced after the operation.
