Short gut syndrome
Presence of less than 200 cm of residual small bowel in adult patients. Insufficient intestinal absorptive capacity results in the clinical manifestations of diarrhoea, dehydration and malnutrition.
Causes:
- Crohn’s disease;
- Mesenteric infarction
- Radiation enteritis
- Midgut volvulus
- Multiple fistulae
- Small-bowel tumours
Management:
- Nutritional Support including TPN.
- Antimotility agents (loperamide HCL or diphenoxylate)
- Octreotide – to reduce volume of gastrointestinal secretion
- Gut lengthening procedures
- Intestinal Transplantation
