Gastrointestinal involvement is a well known complication of Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDSs), mainly in form of abdominal emergencies due to intestinal/abdominal vessels rupture in vascular EDS. In the last decade, a growing number of works investigated the relationship between a wide spectrum of chronic gastrointestinal complaints and various EDS forms, among which the hypermobility type (a.k.a. joint hypermobility syndrome; JHS/EDS-HT) was the most studied. The emerging findings depict a major role for gastrointestinal involvement in the health status and, consequently, management of JHS/EDS-HT patients. Nevertheless, fragmentation of knowledge limits its impact on practice within the boundaries of highly specialized clinics. In this paper, literature review on gastrointestinal manifestations in JHS/EDS-HT was carried out and identified papers categorized as (i) case-control/cohort studies associating (apparently non-syndromic) joint hypermobility and gastrointestinal involvement, (ii) case-control/cohort studies associating JHS/EDS-HT and gastrointestinal involvement, (iii) case reports/series on various gastrointestinal complications in (presumed) JHS/EDS-HT, and (iv) studies reporting gastrointestinal features in heterogeneous EDS patients' cohorts. Gastrointestinal manifestations of JHS/EDS-HT were organized and discussed in two categories, including structural anomalies (i.e., abdominal/diaphragmatic hernias, internal organ/pelvic prolapses, intestinal intussusceptions) and functional features (i.e., dysphagia, gastro-esophageal reflux, dyspepsia, recurrent abdominal pain, constipation/diarrhea), with emphasis on practice and future implications. In the second part of this paper, a summary of possible nutritional interventions in JHS/EDS-HT was presented. Supplementation strategies were borrowed from data available for general population with minor modifications in the light of recent discoveries in the pathogenesis of selected JHS/EDS-HT features.
Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.