D-lactic acidosis secondary to short bowel syndrome.

A 12 year old boy presented with 11 episodes of weakness, ataxia, nausea, slurred speech, dehydration, and sometimes severe lethargy bordering on coma. A year previously the boy had small intestinal resections leaving 20 cm of small bowel remaining. D-lactic acidosis was diagnosed on the basis of a D-lactate level of 5.23 mmol/l. The clinical presentation of the disease is recurrent episodes of unusual neurological manifestations and severe metabolic acidosis. The diagnosis is dependent on the presentations and the plasma D-lactate level. Development of the syndrome seems to be the effect of the accumulation of D-lactic acid.