Autologous gastrointestinal reconstruction.

The patient with short bowel syndrome is essentially unable to absorb sufficient nutrients. This is caused by either short mucosal contact time, insufficient mucosal surface area (enterocyte mass), or a combination of the two. Management consists primarily in sustaining health and growth by intravenous nutrition and in enhancing the natural intestinal adaptation response. Surgery in the form of autologous gastrointestinal reconstruction (AGIR) is designed to redistribute the patient's own residual absorptive bowel to enhance adaptation and, possibly, to increase the absorptive mucosal surface by neomucosal growth. The alternative and ultimate fallback procedure in the management of intestinal failure is bowel transplantation, with its associated serious immunosuppression-related complications. Imaginative AGIR techniques provide new hope for the future.