Dietary and medical management of short bowel syndrome in adult patients.

Resection of the small bowel can lead to malabsorption of fluid, electrolytes, minerals, and other essential nutrients, resulting in malnutrition and dehydration. Individualized and tailored nutritional management for patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS) helps to optimize intestinal absorption, leading to nutritional independence such that a patient can resume as normal a lifestyle as possible. Parenteral nutrition (PN), used to supply the required nutrients following resection, is associated with a number of complications affecting patient morbidity and mortality. Attempts should be made to wean patients from PN to an oral diet as soon as possible. Dietary management is complex and needs to be individualized for each patient on the basis of his or her specific gastrointestinal anatomy, underlying disease, and lifestyle. In addition to nutrient intake, management of SBS also requires appropriate oral rehydration, vitamin and mineral supplementation, and pharmacotherapy. Several medications provide a useful adjunctive function to dietary intervention, including antidiarrheal agents, H2 antagonists and proton pump inhibitors, pancreatic enzymes, somatostatin analogs, antimicrobials, and trophic factors.