Children (Basel). 2022 Jul 10;9(7):1024. doi: 10.3390/children9071024.

Julian L Muff ¹, Filipp Sokolovski ², Zarah Walsh-Korb ^3 4, Rashikh A Choudhury ⁵, James C Y Dunn ⁶, Stefan G Holland-Cunz ¹, Raphael N Vuille-Dit-Bille ¹

Author information

¹Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's University Hospital, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.

²Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Kepler University Hospital, 4020 Linz, Austria.

³Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.

⁴Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.

⁵Department of Transplant Surgery, University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.

⁶Division of Pediatric Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA.

Abstract

Short bowel syndrome (SBS) is a devastating disorder with both short- and long-term implications for patients. Unfortunately, the prevalence of SBS has doubled over the past 40 years. Broadly speaking, the etiology of SBS can be categorized as congenital or secondary, the latter typically due to extensive small bowel resection following diseases of the small intestine, e.g., necrotizing enterocolitis, Hirschsprung's disease or intestinal atresia. As of yet, no cure exists, thus, conservative treatment, primarily parenteral nutrition (PN), is the first-line therapy. In some cases, weaning from PN is not possible and operative therapy is required. The invention of the longitudinal intestinal lengthening and tailoring (LILT or Bianchi) procedure in 1980 was a major step forward in patient care and spawned further techniques that continue to improve lives for patients with severe SBS (e.g., double barrel enteroplasty, serial transverse enteroplasty, etc.). With this review, we aim to provide an overview of the clinical implications of SBS, common conservative therapies and the development of operative techniques over the past six decades. We also provide a short outlook on the future of operative techniques, specifically with respect to regenerative medicine.