Incidence of chronic intestinal failure due short bowel syndrome in adults: A feasibility study

Background: The incidence of short bowel syndrome associated chronic intestinal failure (SBS-CIF) is entirely unknown. A feasibility study was carried out in the tertiary-level hospital of the Bologna University (Italy), to test a protocol devised to investigate the in-hospital and the population incidences of SBS-CIF. Methods: A 3-month (January-March 2024) retrospective survey was carried out in the two digestive disease surgical units of the hospital. Patient inclusion criteria were: age >= 18 years, abdominal surgery with small bowel resection and no-home parenteral nutrition (HPN) before hospital admission. Exclusion criterion: patient already on HPN at hospital admission. Criterion for the diagnosis of "SBS-CIF" was patient discharge on HPN within 3 months from inclusion of the study (end of the follow-up, June 30th 2024). The 3-month in-hospital and population incidences were calculated as percentage of patients who underwent abdominal surgery with a small bowel resection procedure and who developed SBS-CIF, and as "SBS-CIF" per million of inhabitants of the Bologna metropolitan area, respectivelyy. Results: Sixty-seven patients met the inclusion criteria. At June 30th, 56 patients were discharged without HPN (83.5 %), 5 died during hospitalization, 6 were discharged on HPN (in-hospital incidence SBS-CIF: 8.9 %). Two SBS-CIF were resident in the Bologna metropolitan area (SBS-CIF incidence: 1.96 cases/106 inhabitants). Conclusions: Our study proposes a model to investigate the incidence of SBS-CIF in adults. The results provide new data on this hitherto unexplored area of SBS-CIF epidemiology and, importantly, offer a model for multicenter studies to further investigate the epidemiology of SBS-CIF on a national and international scale. (c) 2025 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.