title: Nutritional outcomes following pediatric intestinal transplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study sought to describe the long-term nutritional outcomes of children after intestinal transplant (SBT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 1991 and March 2005, 30 children received 33 SBT at a single center. Eligibility criteria included patient and graft survival >6 months. Weight, height, albumin, prealbumin, zinc (Zn), and essential fatty acid (EFA) levels were reviewed retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 19 patients who met inclusion criteria had a median age at SBT of 2.9 years. The majority of patients were male, Latino, transplanted for necrotizing enterocolitis and received combined liver-SBT. All patients were weaned off total parenteral nutrition to elemental formula at a mean of 39 days post-SBT. Seventeen of 19 patients were Zn deficient and four patients were EFA deficient post-SBT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-SBT most subjects were significantly deficient in anthropometric and biochemical parameters. Post-SBT the mean Z score for weight and height improved significantly at year 1, then leveled off in year 2. Serum protein levels improved from pre-SBT, yet remained low-normal. Zn deficiency was seen frequently after SBT and is under investigation. Children who developed EFA deficiency were on the same formula, receiving inadequate EFA supplementation. Successful SBT was associated with growth and maintenance of serum nutritional parameters but not with significant catch-up growth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, UCLA Pediatric GI, The David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, PO Box 91752, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. Rvenick@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Venick
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Farmer
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saikali
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colangelo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reyen
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: McDiarmid
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ament
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Busuttil
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005228:Fatty Acids, Essential / Q000097:blood; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000637:transplantation*; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D018579:Patient Selection; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000502:physiology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D005228:Fatty Acids, Essential