REVERSIBLE GASTRIC AND PANCREATIC HYPOSECRETION AFTER LONG-TERM TOTAL PARENTERAL NUTRITION

Total parenteral nutrition is a major advance in nutritional support, but is not without deleterious effects.1 Several animal studies have shown reversible functional and structural gastrointestinal atrophy in response to total parenteral nutrition.2 3 4 We report reversibility of gastric and pancreatic hyposecretion in a man who resumed an oral diet after two years of home parenteral nutrition as the sole source of calories. Case Report A 28-year-old man was admitted to the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital because of multiple vertebral compression fractures. He had a seven-year history of Crohn's disease with extensive small-bowel involvement. Despite prolonged treatment with prednisone and sulfasalazine,. © 1979, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.