AIM:To assess the prevalence of bowel dysfunction in hemiplegic patients, and its relationship with the site of neurological lesion, physical immobilization and pharmacotherapy.

In pediatric patients with recurrent abdominal pain and changes in stool habits, a positive calprotectin assay is closely associated with IBD; its systematic employment, therefore, seems to improve the process of endoscopy referral. This test, simple and inexpensive, could be included in the first noninvasive phase of an IBD diagnostic work-up.

No abstract

FC seems to be a direct measure of intestinal inflammation and therefore a good marker of the risk of histological relapse in pediatric IBD patients. The application of this test in clinical practice may enable the avoidance of invasive tests as well as targeting treatment.

The potential for bowel adaptation is higher in surgical than in medical causes of intestinal failure and does not seem to be influenced by complications of intestinal failure. SBS, although worsened by the major number of complications, was not the main category contributing to intestinal failure.

Chronic constipation is the main gastrointestinal complaint of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients, and has a signi®cant e ect on patients' lives, concerning nursing dependence, morbidity and complications. Many therapies have been proposed to treat chronic severe constipation, most of them with limited e ect or being unpredictable in their e ect or being expensive or very radical. Ten spinal cord injury patients have been submitted to a therapeutic protocol based on a high residue diet, a standardised water intake, and on the use of a sequential schedule of evacuating stimuli. After four weeks of treatment the patients showed an increased frequency of bowel movements per week, a decreased total gastrointestinal transit time, and a decreased need for oral and rectal laxatives. This treatment seems to be e ective in modifying patients' bowel habits, and therefore could be considered as a standardised protocol for the management of severe constipation in those who are paraplegic.

In pediatric CD patients, infliximab seems to impact positively on the nutritional status as demonstrated by the improvement in weight and BMI, but not in linear growth; effects on nutritional status seem to be due to amelioration of disease activity, rather than to REE reduction or food intake increase.

These data suggest that repeated infusions of RBCs loaded with Dex 21-P can be safe and useful to maintain long-term remission in pediatric patients with moderately active CD.