Causes of late complications in children operated on for Hirschsprung's disease: a preliminary immunohistochemical investigation using polyclonal antibodies against S-100 protein.

: Late follow-up of 51 children operated on for the classical form of Hirschsprung's disease showed a great many unsatisfactory results. It is well known from the literature that achalasia of the anal sphincter is one of the most important causes. Twenty-five patients underwent redilatation of the anal sphincter. Complaints in the form of obstipation or diarrhoea remained in 40% of the cases after redilatation. Reinvestigation of the resected colon specimens using the conventional histological method showed the presence of ganglion cells in the proximal resection fragment in all patients. In the light of reports in the literature stating that despite normal histology, innervation disturbances can exist in the colon, we conducted a pilot study using polyclonal antibodies against S-100 protein. In three out of four patients with an adequate resection, in accordance with the conventional histological criteria, clear innervation abnormalities could be seen with the aid of polyclonal antibody staining.