Massive Resection of the Small Intestine

Deficiency of Vitamin B12 After Extensive Resection of the Distal Small Intestine in an Infant

“…It is said that the mucosa and muscle of the remaining gut typically hypertrophies (Flint, 1912;Jackson, 1958), but this does not always occur (Shonyo and Jackson, 1950;Shelton and Blaine, 1954) and in animals the site of the resection may play a part in determining whether there is hypertrophy of the remaining small bowel (Booth, Evans, Menzies and Street, 1959). In our patient, the barium follow-through showed no evidence of hypertrophy of the small intestine, but at laparotomy the lower jejunum was found to be hypertrophied.…”

Understanding and augmenting human intestinal adaptation: a call for more clinical research

“…4 -6 No correlation was noted between the small intestinal transit time and the length of ileum resected or the time elapsed since resection. 5 Postresection changes in the gross morphology of the remnant intestine, including increased intestinal length, diameter, and hypertrophy of mucosal folds, have been detected on contrast radiographs and during repeat laparotomy or autopsy in most, 3,7-11 but not all, 12 case series. Such changes have been reported to occur in both remnant jejunum and remnant ileum as soon as 2 months after resection.…”