Diego Ramisch, Juan Manuel Padín, Ignacio Pérez Fernández, Marcelo Sandi, Pablo Barros Schelotto, Adriana Fernández, Hector Solar, Gabriel Gondolesi

Instituto de Trasplante Multiorganico Unidad de Rehabilitación, Nutrición y Transplante Intestinal, Hospital Universitario - Fundación Favaloro, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Background: Short bowel syndrome is the most common cause of intestinal failure; intestinal length has become the leading factor to predict rehabilitation or future need for transplantation. Normal intestinal length has been reported within a wide range depending on the study design (anatomical dissections, necropsies, radiology, etc) and there is no standard procedure described for intraoperative assessment. In the era of intestinal transplant, we aim to report the length of the human intestine from a cohort of pediatric and adult donors.

Materials and methods: From May 2006 to February 2011,the length of the small bowel was measured at the end of the engraftment using a sterile 80 cm umbilical tape following the antimesenteric border without stretching the bowel, from the proximal transection or the ligament of Treitz, to the ileo-cecal valve, independently of the type of transplant performed. Donor bowel length and anthropometric variables were included and analyzed using SPSS® v17.0.

Results: Data from 20/29 cases were included (Isolated 15, Combined 1, MTV 4). Donors were classified in 3 groups based on height as is shown in table 1.

Conclusions: Intestinal length is not significantly different among pediatric and adult donors according to our classification. Intestinal length/height ratio shows a proportional reduction with growth. A larger study including the measurement of intestinal diameter would confirm these findings and elucidate the impact of intestinal diameter in the increment of intestinal absorptive surface with growth.