ABSTRACT

• Tapering enteroplasty was first described by Thomas in 1969 as one method of intestinal anastomosis. The advantages of tapering enteroplasty in the intestinal atresia are: First, it makes end-to-end anastomosis possible between the atretic bowel ends with considerable differences in diameters. Second, it promotes the recover of the postoperative bowel function. Third, it prevents the possibility of the short bowel syndrome by eliminating the need of resecting the dilated bowel. A total of 22 patients with intestinal atresia who underwent tapering enteroplasty from January 1988 to December 2005 at our institute were reviewed. In 3 of 22 cases, tapering enteroplasty was the 2^nd operation after an initial end-to-oblique anastomosis. We reviewed the following items: age, sex, type and location of intestinal atresia, initial feeding and total enteral feeding start day, the length of hospital stay and complications. The average age of the patients was 7 days. Male to female ratio was 1 to 1.2 (10 cases: 12 cases). We performed the tapering enteroplasty on all types and locations of the intestinal atresia from the duodenum to the colon: type I (n=3), type II (n=4), type IIIA (n=7), type IIIB (n=5), type IIIB and IV (n=1), type IV (n=1) and type C (duodenum) and type IIIB and IV (jejunum). On the average, the oral feeds were started on the postoperative 8.8^th day, and full caloric intake via the enteric route was achieved on postoperative 13.3^th day. The average length of hospital stay was 19.6 days. There were 1 case (4.5 %) of anastomotic complication and 2 cases (9 %) of adhesive ileus among 22 patients. The tapering enteroplasty on all types of intestinal atresia is a usefull operative method when there are considerable diameter differences between the atretic bowel ends.
• Keywords: Intestinal atresia; Tapering enteroplasty; Feeding; Complication