Small bowel length in hyperlipidemia and massive obesity.

Small bowel length has been measured during intestinal bypass surgery in 272 morbidly obese patients undergoing jejunoileal bypass and 121 nonobese patients undergoing partial ileal bypass for hyperlipidemia. There was no statistically significant difference in small bowel length between the obese and the nonobese patients. Small bowel length was not correlated with the degree of obesity expressed as the percentage of ideal weight. The only statistically significant correlation determined was between sex and bowel length in the obese subjects, where a greater length of small intestine was found in the males.