Pathology of Chronic Constipation in Pediatric and Adult Coloproctology

Book excerpt: This book is devoted to motility disorders of the gut and their diagnosis, a field which can be frustrating when classical histological staining techniques are used. The use of enzyme histochemical techniques, however, provides important information on functional abnormalities of colon motility, which is demonstrated here in more than two hundred photomicrographs. The individual chapters are divided into three sections: the first outlines and illustrates pathological aspects of a particular disorder, the second provides diagnostic criteria, and the third discusses clinical pathology. In a final chapter the methodology of enzyme histochemistry is described. Drawing from 40 years of experience in the diagnosis of biopsies from the mucosa of the rectosigmoid and laparoscopic biopsies of muscularis propria from different gut areas, the authors have compiled a clearly organized and didactic volume, which will be highly useful to practicing pathologists, technicians and trainees in pathology. It will also be of great benefit to gastroenterologists, pediatricians, and coloproctological and pediatric surgeons in helping them interpret histopathological findings in the gastrointestinal tract.