Barbara Giovanni, Stanghellini Vincenzo, Cremon Cesare, De Giorgio Roberto, Corinaldesi Roberto
Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Dig Dis. 2007;25(3):245-8. doi: 10.1159/000103894.
Acute infectious gastroenteritis is the strongest known risk factor for the development of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), one of the most common functional gastrointestinal disorders. However, knowledge about the incidence and prevalence of post-infectious IBS (PI-IBS) in the general population is still limited. Some of the published epidemiological studies on PI-IBS lack an appropriate control population, and were limited by a short follow-up symptom assessment post-infection. A number of risk factors have been associated with the development of PI-IBS, including the virulence of the pathogen, younger age, female sex, the long duration of the initial illness and the presence of psychological disturbances. However, much work has to be done to establish whether multifactorial mechanisms actually concur to the pathophysiology of PI-IBS. The discovery that an infective episode may trigger the development of IBS has not substantially changed the clinical management of this subset of patients compared to the classical (non-infective) form of IBS. Probiotics have been claimed to be of some benefit in IBS, but the majority of studies have been performed in non-specific IBS rather than in PI-IBS and a number of issues still remain to be elucidated.
急性感染性肠胃炎是已知的最易引发肠易激综合征（IBS）的危险因素，肠易激综合征是最常见的功能性胃肠疾病之一。然而，关于普通人群中感染后肠易激综合征（PI-IBS）的发病率和患病率的了解仍然有限。一些已发表的关于PI-IBS的流行病学研究缺乏合适的对照人群，且受限于感染后症状评估的随访时间较短。许多危险因素与PI-IBS的发生有关，包括病原体的毒力、年龄较小、女性、初始疾病的持续时间较长以及存在心理障碍。然而，要确定多因素机制是否实际参与了PI-IBS的病理生理学过程，仍有许多工作要做。与经典（非感染性）形式的IBS相比，感染性发作可能引发IBS这一发现并未显著改变这类患者的临床管理。益生菌据称对IBS有一定益处，但大多数研究是在非特异性IBS中进行的，而非PI-IBS，仍有许多问题有待阐明。
