megacolon
Sign in to saveAlso known as Dilatation of colon, Megacolon NOS (disorder), Megacolon excluding Hirschsprung's disease, Megacolon excluding Hirschsprung's disease (disorder), Megacolon, not Hirschsprung's (disorder), Megacolon, other than Hirschsprung's
Megacolon is an abnormal dilation of the colon (also called the large intestine). This leads to hypertrophy of the 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 (literally, fecal tumor), which can require surgery to be removed.
Key facts
- Medical condition (new).name
- Megacolon
- Medical condition (new).image
- Toxic Megacolon in Ulcerative Colitis.jpg
- Medical condition (new).caption
- Toxic megacolon associated with ulcerative colitis.
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
9,607 papers- [Toxic megacolon].Casopis lekaru ceskych · 2001
- Toxic megacolon.The British journal of surgery · 2024
- Chronic Megacolon Presenting in Adolescents or Adults: Clinical Manifestations, Diagnosis, and Genetic Associations.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2019
- Toxic megacolon.The Medical clinics of North America · 1993
- Toxic megacolon.Surgery annual · 1980
via PubMed
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Signs and symptoms
- Cause
- Aganglionic megacolon
- Toxic megacolon
- Chagas disease
- Diagnosis
- Treatment
- See also
- References
- External links
Megacolon is an abnormal dilation of the colon (also called the large intestine). This leads to hypertrophy of the 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 (literally, fecal tumor), which can require surgery to be removed.
A human colon is considered abnormally enlarged if it has a diameter greater than in the cecum (it is usually less than ), greater than in the rectosigmoid region and greater than for the ascending colon. The transverse colon is usually less than in diameter.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “megacolon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.