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Diseases of the Small Bowel

The small bowel is the tube that connects the stomach to the large intestine. The small bowel is much longer than the large intestine and is responsible for absorbing most of the nutrients from food as it passes through. Several diseases attack the small bowel. Other diseases that can attack different parts of the body can also manifest themselves in the small bowel.

  1. Celiac Disease

    • Celiac disease is an immune system disorder caused by a reaction to gluten. Gluten is a protein found in many foods, especially wheat and grains. Celiac disease causes decreased absorption and digestion of nutrients within the small bowel. It symptoms are weight loss and diarrhea. Usually treated by avoidance of gluten in the diet, stubborn cases of celiac disease require treatment with medication.

    Crohn's Disease

    • Crohn's disease is an inflammatory disease of the bowels. This disease affects the lining of both the small and large intestines. Its symptoms include severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and even malnutrition. Crohn's disease often spreads deep into the digestive tissues and may cause a life-threatening situation if ulcers penetrate completely through the bowel tissue. There is no cure for Crohn's disease, but there are treatments available to lessen the symptoms.

    Scleroderma

    • Scleroderma is a chronic autoimmune rheumatic disease that can affect the small bowel. It causes atrophy of the muscle layers of bowel tissue and replaces it with fibrous tissue. It is associated with malabsorbtion of nutrients and leads to malnutrition if left untreated. There is no cure, but treatments aim to keep symptoms under control.

    Whipple's Disease

    • Whipple's disease is a rare infectious disease caused by the bacterium Tropheryma wippleii. It affects several areas of the body, but the small intestine is the most common organ affected. Early symptoms include pain in the joints and fever. Later symptoms may not appear until several years later and can include abdominal pain, diarrhea, intestinal hemorrhage, foul smelling fatty stools, swollen lymph nodes and fatigue. Aggressive antibiotic therapy and fluids replacement is necessary.

    Cancer

    • Cancer of the small bowel is extremely rare. These cancers include intestinal lymphoma, leiomyosarcoma and adenocarcinoma. Most cancer of the small bowel is a result of metastasis of the cancer from another site. Treatment consists of surgical removal of the tumor, chemotherapy and radiation to destroy remaining cancerous cells. Prognosis of most small bowel cancers is not good, as the cancer is usually in later stages before detection occurs.

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