Removal Of Section Of Small Bowel

Evaluating Risk Factors: Small Bowel Resection

Evaluating your likely current (and near future) state of health means taking into account the risk factors — such as removal of section of small bowel — that affect you.   Our medical diagnosis tool, The Analyst™, identifies major risk factors by asking the right questions.

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If you indicate having undergone surgery in the past, The Analyst™ will ask further questions including this one:
Have you had a Small Bowel Resection, a procedure in which a section of the small intestine is removed?
Possible responses:
→ No
→ Don't know
→ Less than 50cm (20 inches)
→ More than 50cm (20 inches)

The Diagnostic Process

Based on your response to this question, which may indicate either having an intact small intestine or having had a small bowel resection, The Analyst™ will use differential diagnosis to consider possibilities such as:
Magnesium Requirement

In evaluating magnesium levels in patients with small bowel resection, it was found that while serum magnesium was not abnormally low, but both urinary and muscle magnesium concentration decreased with increasing resection length.  Muscular fatigue was also positively correlated to a pathologically low muscle magnesium concentration.  Results suggest that clinically important magnesium deficiency occurs in patients with resections exceeding 75cm.

Rapid Intestinal Transit

If food passes through the intestine too rapidly (for example due to reduced length), there is not enough time for proper digestion and absorption to be completed.

Selenium Requirement

Extensive small intestinal resection patients are at risk for developing selenium deficiency due to impaired absorptive capacity.

Short Bowel Syndrome

If surgery leaves less than 200cm (about 7 feet) of viable small bowel, the risk for developing short-bowel syndrome is high.

Vitamin B12 Requirement

Resection of the bowel increases the risk of vitamin B12 malabsorption.  Even 7% to 10% of individuals with serum vitamin B12 levels in the 200-400pg/mL range have developed neuropsychiatric complications of vitamin B12 deficiency.  Previously there was only concern when levels were below 200pg/mL.

Vitamin D Requirement

Vitamin D malabsorption reflects the extent of distal small bowel resection in Crohn's disease patients.

Vitamin E Requirement

Ileal resection can lead to malabsorption of both divalent cations (such as calcium and magnesium) and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and vitamin K.

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