Taipei City Hospital

      The Zhongxing Branch of Taipei City Hospital recently received two babies born less than a month ago suffering from abdominal distension, vomiting, milk regurgitation and poor appetite.

      Wu Qiusen, Director of the Neonatology Department, says that a physical examination of the two newborns showed normal breathing and heartbeat; a percussion of the abdomen showed tympany; a digital rectal examination showed anal tightness; and an X-ray examination showed severe intestinal tympanites. Through barium photography of the digestive tract followed by an abdomen X-ray examination 24 hours later, the condition turned out to be megacolon.

      It was confirmed through pathological examination that the colon lacked ganglia, making the peristalsis in this part of the intestinal tube impossible and consequently causing suspected symptoms of intestinal obstruction.