My grandaughter was born one week ago and is constipated…of course we are concerned because her 24 year old father has hirshsprungs…can anyone let me know the likelihood of the baby actually having the disease or probably just a constipated baby with worried parents?
Thank you.
The chance is greater if the mother has hirschsprung’s and also is greater if the segment with no nerve cells is longer. I think the chances range from about 3-12% depending on these factors of having a child with this condition.
Better to be safe than sorry… good luck!
Since we haven’t really dealt with this for 20 years…do they still do the barium enema’s first for diagnosis…and then do the biopsy? And do they still use general anesthesia for the biopsy? I am sure many things have changed since we have been involved…
Thank you so much!
My son was born 7 months ago and they did a suction rectal biopsy. We were not there when they did the biopsy, but since we were not informed of anesthia, I am assuming that it was not used.
They told us it would be painless for the child. We were at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
we had both the barium enema and a suction rectal biopsy. we did have to sign for of anesthia, but it was more like a twilight sadation, not a put under.
My son had the biopsy when he was 3 days old, and he was not put under for it. I think when they are small they can do it trans-anally and it’s a quick procedure because their colon walls are still very thin. It’s when the kids get a little older that it becomes more of a surgical procedure where they need to be sedated. We had my 6 year old tested for HD and started with the barium enema because they told me since her colon walls were thick now we’d have to put her under for a biopsy. Luckily her enema came back normal (although it answered none of our questions!). Good luck!