Surgical Treatment of Chronic Obstipation

Abstract

Obstipation is a symptom of disturbed intestinal motor function. It is produced by intra- and paraintestinal as well as extraintestinal stimuli. Thus the number of possible disturbances is manifold. Hence a pathogenetic clarification is necessary before individual cases can be treated according to their cause. In practice this means that a clear line must be drawn between the intra- or para-intestinal causes of obstipation and the extraintestinal functional forms when one decides on the indication for operation (Table 1).