Megacolon - a gigantism of a colon of a various parentage.

Etiology. A congenital underdevelopment or a toxic lesion of nervous ganglions of a wall of a colon; dystrophic processes in the central nervous system, causing disturbances of motor activity of distal departments of a colon or its segments; organic narrowings of a lumen of an intestine. The complicated promotion of fecal masses on the narrowed colon conducts to sharp expansion and a hypertrophy of a wall above the located departments with the subsequent decompensation of motor function and at this level. Retardation of a passage of intestinal contents, its long stagnation in a colon (the feces quite often is absent within 5-7 days, and sometimes and 30 days) cause an intoxication, disturbance of metabolic processes, an arrest of development of the child or sharp depression of a working capacity at occurrence a megacolon in adults (it is more often marked in the age of 20-30 years).

Signs, current. A long constipation, augmentation of a stomach, quite often visible an eye the distended loops which have bulked up through an abdominal wall of a colon, the general delicacy, an attrition, a physical and mental underdevelopment (at children), high predisposition to other diseases.