Bypass enteropathy: an inflammatory process in the excluded segment with systemic complications.

Evidence is presented that many of the enteric and systemic manifestations after jejunoileal bypass can be related to an inflammatory process within the bypassed small bowel rather than to the surgically induced sequelae of a short bowel syndrome with malabsorption. Invasion of the excluded segment by fecal flora was associated with a histologically demonstrable inflammatory response of the mucosa. The disorder was of variable severity and duration and occurred in the majority of 28 bypass patients. Progression to a clinical syndrome resembling an acute abdomen occurred in about 15% of the patients. Small bowel ileus and, in some patients, obstruction of the colon were suggested by physical signs and x-ray findings. Surgical exploration in such instances demonstrated an inflammaotry process of the excluded small bowel loops with severe distention of this segment and of the colon, but not organic obstruction. Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis was a sequal in two patients. Exudative protein loss was documented in the severe cases. Most of the systemic sequelae are comparable to those seen with inflammatory diseases of the bowel such as Crohn's disease. Fever, excessive weight and lean tissue loss, and the involvement of skin, blood vessels, joints and possibly, the liver suggest an immune response as a common factor in the pathogenesis. The clinical improvement with antibiotics such as metronidazole or with restitution of normal bowel continuity indicates that the bacterial flora in the excluded small bowel segment or its byproducts are causally related to the systemic complications. Hyperoxaluria may be primarily the sequela of steatorrhea and not of the inflammatory process.