The care of patients with a short bowel syndrome is an interdisciplinary challenge. The short bowel syndrome is a complex of symptoms caused by the loss of large sections of the small intestine. A relevant impairment of the small intestine function occurs when more than half of the organ is removed. This is usually the result of a surgical resection in Crohn's disease or damage to the small intestine of other genesis (e.g. consequences of radiation therapy, polytrauma, mesenteric ischaemia). In the remaining short intestine and the consecutively reduced absorption area, digestion is disturbed and malabsorption (malabsorption of the absorbed food) manifests. The consequences are diarrhoea with accelerated intestinal passage, fatty stools, weight loss and often severe malnutrition. A parenteral nutrition therapy (artificial nutrition via the vein) is therefore a vital therapeutic step for patients with the short bowel syndrome. The analogue of the growth hormone glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) has been available as a causal drug therapy option for a few years. The GLP-2 analogue is injected subcutaneously every day and causes a stabilisation and enlargement of the villi of the small intestine (location where the nutrients are absorbed), so that the resorption capacity in the intestine is improved. In the ideal case, an oral diet without diarrhoea is achieved again. We have already obtained very good results with this therapy in our Centre.
This new drug therapy option, the adaptation of the artificial diet to the changing absorption capacity of the residual intestine and the monitoring of the energy, nutrient, electrolyte and fluid balance requires a close supervision by a specialised team.
In our special consultation hours, we guarantee a target-oriented treatment of this complex clinical picture.