Current gastroenterology reports
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Curr Gastroenterol Rep · Aug 2005
ReviewDiagnosis and treatment of irritable bowel syndrome: state of the art.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder with a wide variety of presentations that may include abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or alternating bowel habits. Symptom-based criteria and a limited medical evaluation are used for diagnosis. ⋯ Treatment strategies are focused on specific symptoms, potential underlying disorders in stress responsiveness, and predisposing psychological features. Although only two medications, tegaserod for constipation-predominant IBS and alosetron for diarrhea-predominant IBS, are specifically indicated, a wide variety of treatment options are available and are discussed in this review.
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Curr Gastroenterol Rep · Feb 2004
Review Comparative StudyDiagnosis and treatment of cholangiocarcinoma.
Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated increasing mortality rates from intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma during the past decades. Primary sclerosing cholangitis is the most important predisposing condition to the development of cholangiocarcinoma. Improvements in noninvasive diagnostic techniques have led to decreased use of invasive procedures. ⋯ Radical surgery with negative histologic margins is the only curative option in cholangiocarcinoma. With more aggressive surgical approaches, including partial hepatectomy, 3-year survival rates of 35% to 50% can be achieved. Liver transplantation for unresectable cholangiocarcinoma was shown to be feasible in pilot studies of highly selected patients.
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Colonic diverticular disease is common but surprisingly poorly understood. Recent advances in the field continue to focus on the introduction of new technology. ⋯ Selected patients undergoing laparoscopic sigmoid resection may benefit from this approach. The vast majority of reports are from retrospective studies and include few randomized, controlled trials.
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Hepatopulmonary syndrome is caused by intrapulmonary vasodilation that leads to abnormal arterial gas exchange in the setting of liver disease or portal hypertension. It is seen in up to 15% of cirrhotics and is an increasingly common indication for liver transplantation. ⋯ Excess production of nitric oxide in the lung contributes to pulmonary vasodilation and may be triggered by the release of mediators from the damaged liver. No medical therapies are established as effective, and liver transplantation is the only documented curative treatment.
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Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are common in patients with liver diseases. The pathogenesis of protein-energy malnutrition in cirrhosis involves many factors, including poor oral intake, malabsorption, and metabolic abnormalities similar to stress. Encephalopathy may complicate cirrhosis but is usually not caused by diet. ⋯ Deficiency of choline in parenteral nutrition has been proposed as the mechanism for liver disease. Acute liver diseases such as fulminant hepatic failure or alcoholic hepatitis are considered hypercatabolic diseases and thus require prompt nutritional intervention with a high-calorie enteral or parenteral formula. In fulminant hepatic failure, low-protein, fluid-restricted formulas are recommended.