Wonder drug helps gut grow back
A newly approved drug could dramatically improve the lives of people forced to feed themselves intravenously every day.
More than 2,000 people live with Intestinal Failure in the UK where the gut or small bowel can’t absorb enough fluid or nutrients to survive leaving them needing fluids and nutrition infused directly into their veins, often for the rest of their lives.
One of the most common causes is Short Bowel Syndrome where surgery leaves the shortened gut struggling to function properly. This occurs if there is a stroke affecting the bowel, surgery for Crohn’s disease or sometimes a cancerous growth.
Wonder drug Revestive replicates a naturally occurring hormone absent in patients with short bowel which helps the bowel grow in surface area so that the fluids and nutrition are better absorbed.
It has allowed patients in countries that have already approved the use of Revestive to come off intravenous feeds giving them greater freedom and a better quality of life.
Gastroenterologist Simon Gabe works at St Mark’s Bowel Hospital in London: one of two national referral centres in the UK which treat patients with intestinal failure.
Dr Gabe said: “The surface area of the small bowel is the equivalent a doubles tennis court because the surface of the gut is covered with millions of micro protrusions called villi and microvilli that absorb nutrients.
“Revestive stimulates the production of new villi and makes the villi longer so the gut grows in volume rather than length. It is a total gamechanger for these patients and we need to make people aware that it this treatment is now available in England.
“It changes the whole dynamic of what we can do for patients and that is great news for both them and us as clinicians.”