Gastrointestinal problems in the immunocompromised host. A review for surgeons.

As the immunocompromised patient population grows, the gastrointestinal surgeon is increasingly called upon to make complex diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. The surgeon should first identify the patient as immunocompromised and then categorize the probable degree of immunocompromise as mild, moderate, or severe. Mildly immunocompromised patients tend to present late and with minimal symptoms, but the disease entities are the same ones seen in the general population. Moderately and severely immunocompromised patients may also develop the usual surgical problems, but the differential diagnosis is expanded to include complications of the immunocompromised state or complications of the underlying problem which caused the immune compromise. The expanded differential diagnosis includes infections with atypical organisms, opportunistic neoplasms, neutropenic enterocolitis, complications of medications, and forms of biliary tract disease not seen in the general population. Advances in oncology, transplantation, and the treatment of AIDS, have extended the life expectancy of these patients and increased the immunocompromised population. Prompt appropriate operative therapy may be lifesaving when surgical complications develop.