Nutritional Support After Surgery of the Small Bowel

Abstract

The most frequent diseases involving the small bowel and requiring surgery are Crohn’s disease and postoperative or post inflammatory adhesion. Less frequently small bowel resection is performed because of ischemia for mesenteric artery thrombosis or embolism and for neoplastic diseases arising in the small bowel (rare) or compressing or infiltrating the small bowel from outside (desmoid tumors, sarcomas, lymphomas, etc.). Furthermore, the small bowel is often interested by penetrating wounds (stab wounds or gunshot wounds) or can be strangulated in inguinal hernia, ventral hernia, or volvulus. Another rare small bowel disease requiring surgery is intussusception often associated to pedunculated polyps..