Intraoperative Determination of the Actual Length of the Small and Large Intestine and its Relation to Anthropometric Variables in the Egyptian Population

Abstract

Introduction:The primary function of small bowel is digestion and absorption of dietary components after they leave the stomach. The enlarged surface area of small intestine enables complete digestion of food stuffs. Investigators has correlated the length of small bowel with age, gender, height, and weight. Aim of work:To asses intraoperatively the small bowel length measurements and analysis of demographic predictors of increased length. Patients and methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted in Emergency Department of Cairo University hospital from January 2021 to June 2021. We included 160 patients who have been admitted to general surgery department of Kasr Alainy who were indicated for abdominal surgery. Measurement the of the small bowel is expressed in centimeters, starting at ligament of Treitz and ending at the ileocecal junction using a sterile 10 cmtape applied to the anti-mesenteric border of un stretched small intestine. Results:The current study showed that there was very high positive correlation according to weight and height while BMI shows no significant correlation between them. We also found that there were highly statistically significant differences between sex groups according to age, height, BMI and Total small bowel length. In males, there was very high positive significant correlation according to weight and height. In females, there was very high positive significant correlation according to height. Conclusion:Length of the small bowel in humans is pertinent to advances in deep enteroscopy and existing surgical applications such as intestinal bypass and prevention of short gut syndrome.