Congenital Pouch Colon

Abstract

Congenital pouch colon is a condition associated with anorectal agenesis, and is defined as an anomaly in which whole or part of the colon is replaced by a pouch-like dilatation, which communicates distally with the urogenital tract by a large fistula.1This condition has been seen as a curiosity ever since its first description in 1912 by Spriggs in a London Hospital Museum specimen with absence of the left half of colon and rectum.2 Various terms have been used to describe this entity including pouch-like dilatation of shortened colon, exstrophiasplanchnica, absence of colon and rectum, cystic dilatation of colon, short colon, colonic reservoir, congenital atresia of anus with short colon malformation, pouch colon syndrome, association of imperforate anus with short colon (AIASC) and congenital pouch colon.4-12 The term has now been included as rare variant, in the Krickenbeck classification of anorectal-malformations (ARM).13,14