Emerging treatments for short bowel syndrome in adult patients

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Short bowel syndrome (SBS) is the major cause of chronic intestinal failure (IF), defined as ‘the reduction of gut function below the minimum necessary for the absorption of macronutrients and/or water and electrolytes, such that intravenous supplementation is required to maintain health and/or growth’.

Areas covered: Spontaneous intestinal adaptation, including increased hormonal secretion, development of hyperphagia and gut microbiota dysbiosis, occurs 2 years after resection, improving intestinal absorption and decreasing PN dependency. Hormonal treatments, promoting intestinal hyperadaptation, have been proposed in patients with SBS with chronic IF. Clinical studies showed teduglutide to increase urine production and reduce the need for parenteral support volume in these patients. According to the latest ESPEN Guidelines, if a growth factor treatment is considered, the GPL2 analog, teduglutide, should be the first-choice treatment.

Expert opinion: These therapies underline the importance of patient monitoring at home and the complexity for HPN adaptation. A multidisciplinary approach should be a gold standard.

KEYWORDS:

• Short bowel syndrome
• intestinal failure
• home parenteral nutrition
• glucagon-like peptide-2
• trophic factors

Declaration of interest

J Francisca has served as a board member or paid consultant for Shire and Zealand Pharma, and received honoraria, speakers’ fees, and travel expenses from Shire. J Francisca has also received travel expenses from Baxter. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.