From Petah-Tikva, Israel – no map in your head? A tad east of Tel Aviv – at Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Dr. Anat Guz-Mark came to Helsinki for the ESPGHAN annual meeting, where this interview was recorded.

Her particular interest and expertise lie in intestinal failure and its therapies, with surgical short-bowel syndrome, paediatric intestinal pseudo-obstruction, and a variety of congenital enteropathies among the problems that she, her patients, and her patients’ families face together.

Listeners will learn her answers to five important questions:

1. What are the common causes for chronic intestinal failure in children other than surgical short-bowel syndrome?

2. What makes paediatric intestinal pseudo-obstruction or congenital enteropathies so challenging? Or, how do they differ from short-bowel syndrome?

3. Although life-saving for these patients, long-term parenteral nutrition comes with risks. What complications should clinicians anticipate?

4. What strategies are most effective in improving long-term outcomes?

5. What do we know about long-term outcomes and quality of life for these children?

She recommends the following articles for more comprehensive and detailed information than the interview could present.

Literature

• Duggan CP, Jaksic T. Pediatric intestinal failure. N Engl J Med 2017 Aug 17; 377(7):666–675. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1602650. PMID: 28813225

• Lezo A et al. Chronic intestinal failure in children: An international multicenter cross-sectional survey. Nutrients2022 Apr 30; 14(9):1889. doi: 10.3390/nu14091889. PMID: 35565856. PMCID: PMC9103944

• Norsa L et al. Nutrition and intestinal rehabilitation of children with short bowel syndrome: A position paper of the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition. Part 2: Long-term follow-up on home parenteral nutrition. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2023 Aug.

• Demirok A et al. Pediatric chronic intestinal failure: Something moving? Nutrients 2024 Sep 3; 16(17):2966. doi: 10.3390/nu16172966. PMID: 39275281. PMCID: 11397488

Dr. Guz’s favourite song: Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise

ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify: Spotify Playlist