Introduction: Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIPO) is a rare cause of intestinal dysmotility. First-line treatment in adult patients is medical and nutritional therapy. For patients who fail these treatment options, surgical interventions may be necessary. In this scoping review, we aim to investigate the current research on surgical interventions for CIPO in adults.
Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Scopus were queried for articles related to surgical interventions for adults with CIPO. Search terms included: intestinal dysmotility, intestinal pseudoobstruction, global intestinal dysmotility, chronic intestinal pseudoobstruction, gastrointestinal paresis, neurogastrointestinal motility disorder, and chronic small intestinal motility disorder.
Results: Initial search identified 4,763 records, 4,722 were deemed irrelevant after screening and were excluded. The remaining 41 reports were retrieved and assessed for eligibility. An additional 20 studies were excluded after in-depth assessment. The remaining 21 reports were: nine cohort studies, seven case reports, four reviews, and one case-control study. Of these, 10 studies had a study population of <10 patients, while seven had ?10 patients. The remaining four studies were reviews. Results of these papers described the safety and effectiveness of various surgical interventions for adults with CIPO, including percutaneous endoscopic procedures, surgical decompression, small bowel resection, and intestinal transplantation.
Conclusions: Although this review suggests that surgical interventions for CIPO can be safe and effective options for select patients, strong conclusions cannot be made due to limited number of relevant studies and small sample sizes. Further studies on surgical interventions for adults with CIPO are needed to confirm our findings.
