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Query: UMLS:C0024523 (malabsorption)
 7,319 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction denotes the clinical picture that results due to the failure of intestinal peristalsis to overcome the normal resistance to flow and is characterized by recurrent episodes of signs and symptoms of intestinal obstruction in the absence of any mechanical compromise of the intestinal lumen. The region(s) of the gut affected may be isolated or diffuse. It is not uncommon to find evidence of autonomic neuropathy and smooth muscle dysfunction with extraintestinal manifestations such as urinary symptoms from abnormal ureter or bladder function. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction can be caused by a variety of diseases, and for simplicity, certain authors have divided it into myopathic and neuropathic categories. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction may present at any age with a variable amount of abdominal pain, distension, nausea, diarrhea, or constipation and with laboratory abnormalities usually reflecting the degree of malabsorption and malnutrition present. The radiologic findings are varied but commonly include paralytic ileus or signs of apparent clinical obstruction with dilated loops of bowel. The number of pseudo-obstruction cases is dependent on how one defines the condition. It appears prudent to require radiographic abnormalities consistent with obstruction on a plain film of the abdomen for the diagnosis. More recently, studies have focused on the gastrointestinal manometric abnormalities of the stomach and small intestine in chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction during fasting and fed states; however, sensitivity and specificity of these abnormalities are not well defined. Treatment is aimed at limiting symptoms and maintaining adequate nutrition. Prokinetic agents should be tried in an attempt to restore normal intestinal propulsion. However, their overall efficacy appears to be variable. It is still too premature to consider intestinal pacing or small bowel transplantation in this condition. Surgical approaches to chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction should be limited to patients refractory to medical therapy, and even then, an approach focused on the patient's primary presenting symptoms should be considered.
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PMID:Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. 854 80

Small bowel diverticulosis is a rare disease of gastrointestinal tract that occurs most frequently in older patients. Since this disease can be asymptomatic, for a long time, the diagnosis rarely is made in the preoperative period. In 40% of cases there are acute or chronic complications, most frequently diverticulitis either with or without perforation, bowel obstruction and massive haemorrhage clinically manifested as bleeding from the lower part of the gastrointestinal tract. Abdominal pain, pseudoobstructive and malabsorption syndrome, expressive weight loss, steatorrhea and anemia are common chronic complications. In these cases a surgical treatment is necessary. Resection of the affected part of the small bowel is usually performed with end-to-end anastomosis. The authors present 4 cases with diverticulosis of the small bowel, two cases of which were manifested by diverticulitis and one of them was perforated. Pseudoobstructive syndrome, malabsorption and expressive weight loss were presented in other two cases. All four cases were dominated by severe abdominal pain. The surgical treatment was based upon radical resection of the small bowel with end-to-end anastomosis. (Fig. 4, Ref. 28.)
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PMID:[Diverticulosis of the small intestine]. 855 55

Several investigators have reported good results after a one-stage Soave procedure without a stoma for infants with Hirschsprung's disease. The authors reviewed their concurrent experience with the one- and two-stage approaches, comparing the two groups with respect to rate of complications and clinical outcome. Over a 3-year period, 36 infants with colonic Hirschsprung's disease presenting in the first year of life were treated with a Soave pull-through. Thirteen had a one-stage pull-through, and 23 had a two-stage procedure using an initial stoma. There was no difference with respect to median age at time of diagnosis, median follow-up period, length of aganglionosis, or male:female ratio between the groups. The incidences of major complications such as small bowel obstruction, segmental or acquired aganglionosis, anastomotic leak, and malabsorption were equal between the two groups. However, 13% of the two-stage patients required revision of the stoma. All major complications in the one-stage group were in those who weighed less than 4 kg at the time of surgery. Minor complications such as wound infection, perianal excoriation, and need for repeated dilatation were similar between the groups, but minor stoma-related complications (prolapse or retraction) occurred in 26% of the two-stage infants. When complications were stratified using a more sophisticated scale of severity, no significant difference was found between the groups. The overall complication rate was 1.5 events per patient in the one-stage group and 2.0 events per patient in the two-stage group. This small difference was related to the presence of a stoma in the two-stage group. Overall, 10 of 12 survivors in the one-stage group and 22 of 23 in the two-stage group were doing well, with normal bowel function noted on long-term follow-up (mean period, of 14 and 19 months, respectively). Both one- and two-stage approaches were associated with a significant complication rate, although long-term outcome was excellent in both groups. The higher complication rate in the two-stage group was attributable to the presence of a stoma. For small infants, it may be beneficial to delay the one-stage pull-through until weight exceeds 4 kg.
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PMID:One-stage versus two-stage Soave pull-through for Hirschsprung's disease in the first year of life. 863 83

Many factors can modify nutritional status in cancer patients, including cachexia, nausea and vomiting, decreased caloric intake or oncologic treatments capable of determining malabsorption. Cachexia is a complex disease characterized not only by a poor intake of nutrients or starvation, but also by metabolic derangement. Nausea and vomiting may limit the nutrient intake and are most often the consequences of oncologic treatments or opioid chronic therapy. Decreased caloric intake is considered to be one of the major causes of malnutrition, although the causes of anorexia remain unclear. Malabsorption is generally attributed to the consequences of oncologic treatments reducing the gastrointestinal absorption. Biochemical measurements and immunological tests may be not reliable indicators of nutritional status in cancer patients. Therefore, medical history, physical examination, estimates of daily oral intake, weight changes and an appropriate consideration of the nutritional requirements according to the stage of disease must still be assessed. The therapeutic approaches should be individualized and realistic. Whenever possible, oral nutrition is the method of choice, with due consideration for specific dietary needs. Nausea and anorexia can be reduced by different kinds of drugs. A careful decision based on good clinical judgement is necessary before deciding to start either enteral or parenteral nutrition, to avoid a useless, costly and difficult treatment. In choosing the route for administration of nutrients, availability of and access to a functioning gastrointestinal tract, compliance and comfort of the patient, gastrointestinal toxicity due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy fields, different costs, duration and place of treatment should be considered rather than the different capacity of parenteral versus enteral nutrition. However, postoperative periods after massive intestinal resection often require prolonged parenteral nutrition. The benefits of parenteral nutrition are not often demonstrable in patients with bowel obstruction. Different ethical aspects are presented. Flexibility in attempting to meet the nutrition needs of each patient is probably the most useful guide.
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PMID:Nutrition in cancer patients. 877 Dec 86

Basic guidelines for cancer pain treatment can be found in many different handbooks published in the last years. Particularly those of the World Health Organisation published in 1986 and revised in 1996, furnish useful indication for cancer pain treatment. The authors therefore focused on resuming the most recent development in this field. In the research regarding alternative routes of administration of opioids in alternative to the oral route, the rectal administration of morphine and methadone and the transdermal route for fentanyl have proved to be efficacious. The subcutaneous route (for morphine) as well as the intravenous, peridural and subaracnoid routes, being known for some time are not taken in consideration in this paper. Various studies suggest that alternative routes are necessary in 53-70% of patients in their last days or months of live. The most frequent causes for the need to stop oral administration are dysphagia, nausea, and uncontrollable vomiting, bowel obstruction, malabsorption, cognitive failure, coma, and pain syndromes requiring anaesthetics which need be administered via the spinal route. Among the drugs, tramadol seems to be effective in the control of moderate pain. Tramadol is a centrally acting analgesic drug; it has an agonist effect on mu 1 receptors of opioids and acts also by inhibiting the re-uptake of noradrenaline and serotonine which activates descending monoaminergic inhibitory pathways. Recent clinical studies revealed that pamidronate has an analgesic effect in pain due to bone metastasis. Pamidronate is part of the biphosphonates, which are active on bone metabolism and are usually being used for the treatment of hypercalcaemia in cancer. The authors also describe briefly the indication of ketamin in association with morphine for the treatment of neuropathic pain.
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PMID:[Treatment of pain in oncology]. 923 25

An association between celiac disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the small intestine has been recognized for many years. Coeliac disease is characterized by an enteropathy sensitive to gluten, malabsorption of food and partial or total villous atrophy. Also malignant lymphoma may present with malabsorption and mucosal lesion similar to that found in coeliac patients. The diagnosis of lymphoma in coeliac patients can be extremely difficult because the presenting symptoms and histological lesion are similar, but the presence of a cluster of symptoms such as abdominal pain malabsorption, weight loss in patients older than 40 years with a history of poorly responsive coeliac disease should raise a suspicion of malignancy. We present a case of 55 year-old man with malignant lymphoma and coeliac disease surgically treated in our Institute for intestinal obstruction.
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PMID:[Problems of differential diagnosis of lymphoma and celiac disease. A case report]. 941 4

Complications of intestinal tuberculosis may be masked. This study aims to heighten awareness of these unusual clinical complications and the radiological findings in such cases. Over a period of 5 years, 21 patients with proven intestinal tuberculosis, 13 of whom presented with complications, are presented in this report. Radiological diagnosis was by barium gastrointestinal studies and computed tomographic (CT) evaluation. Surgical specimens and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis. The commonest complication was intestinal obstruction (N = 6). Others were esophagobronchial and duodenocolic fistulas (N = 2), significant gastrointestinal hemorrhage (N = 3) caused by ulcers in the small bowel and colon, and malabsorption syndrome (N = 3) caused by diffuse small bowel infiltration in 2 cases and duodenocolic fistula in the third case. None of the patients presented were immunocompromised. Though uncommon, tuberculosis should be considered in patients presenting clinically with intestinal obstruction, significant gastrointestinal hemorrhage and malabsorption state.
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PMID:Radiological evaluation of complications of intestinal tuberculosis. 958 53

Acquired jejuno-ileal diverticulosis are rare (0.1 to 1.4%) but their complications are non exceptional (6 to 13%) with a death rate which can reach 40% in older patients. From a histological view, acquired diverticulosis differ from congenital ones by an absent muscular tunic. Complications consist in, by descending order: diverticulitis, perforation (7%), acute bowel obstruction (3%), intestinal hemorrhage (2.7%) mostly massive, malabsorption of fat, protein, macrocytic anaemia, intestinal tumors same as found in small, bowel. The treatment of small bowel diverticulosis becomes surgical only when complicated. It consists in the strict resection of the complicated diverticulosis area, respecting the asymptomatic diverticulosis. Prophylaxis of the complications is based on healthy diet habits against stasis, bowel pressure using antispasmodics, intestinal disinfectants, residue free diet, and against infection (oral tetracyclines).
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PMID:[Acquired jejunal and ileal diverticula (Meckel's excluded)]. 1042 45

Retained surgical sponge is an unpleasant surprise in clinical practice. Intraluminal migration of the retained sponge, though rare, can lead to intestinal obstruction and other complications. We describe two cases of retained surgical sponge, both following gynaecological surgery, presenting several years after surgery with features of subacute intestinal obstruction, malabsorption and several years after surgery with features of subacute intestinal obstruction, malabsorption and sever hypoproteinemia which reverted after surgical removal.
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PMID:Retained surgical sponge: an unusual cause of malabsorption. 1046 49

A 34-year-old woman presented with walking difficulty and pain in the legs 3 years after several abdominal operations for pancreatic cancer and intestinal obstruction thereafter. Corneal erosion, loss of deep sensation in the legs, polyneuropathy, myopathy, and memory disturbance were recognized. Deficiency of multiple vitamins (A, B1, B6, D, E, K) was found. The diagnoses were vitamin A-deficient corneal erosion, vitamin K-deficient bleeding abnormality (asymptomatic), and the neurological deficits caused by vitamin E, B1, B6 and D deficiency. Although the vitamin supplement started 2 years after the onset of the neurological disease, both clinical and electrophysiological recovery was seen. She was unable to walk on admission, but became able to walk after vitamin E supplement. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing multi-vitamin deficiency causing extensive neurological, ophthalmological, and hematological deficits. Recognition of this condition would prevent the progression of potentially irreversible neurological disorders in patients with malabsorption syndrome after extensive abdominal surgery.
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PMID:[A case of various neurological deficits caused by multi-vitamin deficiency associated with malabsorption syndrome after pancreatomy and small bowel resection]. 1058 28


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