Changes of Intestinal Functions in Liver Cirrhosis

Background: Understanding of the gut-liver axis is important for the up-to-date management of liver cirrhosis, and changes of intestinal functions form the core of this interesting research field. Summary: Most investigators noted small intestinal dysmotility in their patients with liver cirrhosis. Marked changes in the contraction pattern were observed in early manometric studies. The orocecal transit time, particularly small intestinal transit, has generally been reported to be prolonged, which has been demonstrated in multiple investigations to be related to the severity of the liver disease (e.g., Child-Pugh class), the presence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and hepatic encephalopathy (HE) as well as a history of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Bacteriologically proven SIBO in proximal jejunal aspiration Received: January 17, 2016 Accepted: February 4, 2016 Published online: March 8, 2016 Hiroshi Fukui, MD, PhD Department of Gastroenterology, Endocrinology and Metabolism Nara Medical University, 840 Shijo-cho Kashihara, Nara 634-8522 (Japan) E-Mail hfukui @ naramed-u.ac.jp Reiner Wiest, MD Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital of Visceral Surgery and Medicine Freiburgstrasse, CH–3010 Bern (Switzerland) E-Mail reiner.wiest @ insel.ch © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel 2296–9403/16/0011–0024$39.50/0 www.karger.com/iid H. Fukui and R. Wiest contributed equally to this work. D ow nl oa de d by : 54 .7 0. 40 .1 1 10 /3 /2 01 7 2: 18 :5 8 P M