title: Gut failure in critical care: old school versus new school.
abstract: The concept of bacterial translocation and gut-origin sepsis as causes of systemic infectious complications and multiple organ deficiency syndrome in surgical and critically ill patients has been a recurring issue over the last decades attracting the scientific interest. Although gastrointestinal dysfunction seemingly arises frequently in intensive care unit patients, it is usually underdiagnosed or underestimated, because the pathophysiology involved is incompletely understood and its exact clinical relevance still remains controversial with an unknown yet probably adverse impact on the patients' outcome. The purpose of this review is to define gut-origin sepsis and related terms, to describe the mechanisms leading to gut-derived complications, and to illustrate the therapeutic options to prevent or limit these untoward processes.
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis (Eleni Sertaridou, Vasilios Papaioannou, Ioannis Pneumatikos), Alexandroupolis, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sertaridou
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis (Eleni Sertaridou, Vasilios Papaioannou, Ioannis Pneumatikos), Alexandroupolis, Greece.
authors.forename: Vasilios
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Papaioannou
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace (George Kolios), Alexandroupolis, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kolios
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis (Eleni Sertaridou, Vasilios Papaioannou, Ioannis Pneumatikos), Alexandroupolis, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pneumatikos
keywords: Gut failure; bacterial translocation; immunonutrition; selective gut decontamination