SHORT-BOWEL SYNDROME - A COLLECTIVE REVIEW

Neonates can now be expected to survive with very short lengths of bowel because of advances in pediatric neonatal care and in parenteral and enteral nutrition. Most pediatric surgeons have only a few patients with this problem under their care, so individual experience is limited. This collective survey, carried out by postal questionnaires to pediatric surgeons in the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons in the United Kingdom with an interest in the gastrointestinal tract, documents current techniques of management, the complications encountered, and reviews the clinical and economic consequences of prolonged total parenteral nutrition. We conclude that within the limitations of resources and our understanding of prognosis, neonates, especially if <35 weeks' gestation, with remaining jejunoileal segment of >20 cm with an intact ileocecal valve (ICV) or >30 cm without an ICV, should be considered salvageable. © 1992.