The Gut in Critical Illness. Curr Gastroenterol Rep 2025 Dec;27(1):11
Date
01/10/2025Pubmed ID
39792234DOI
10.1007/s11894-024-00954-4Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85214896501 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this narrative review is to describe the mechanisms for gut dysfunction during critical illness, outline hypotheses of gut-derived inflammation, and identify nutrition and non-nutritional therapies that have direct and indirect effects on preserving both epithelial barrier function and gut microbiota during critical illness.
RECENT FINDINGS: Clinical and animal model studies have demonstrated that critical illness pathophysiology and interventions breach epithelial barrier function and convert a normally commensal gut microbiome into a pathobiome. As a result, the gut has been postulated to be the "motor" of critical illness and numerous hypotheses have been put forward to explain how it contributes to systemic inflammation and drives multiple organ failure. Strategies to ameliorate gut dysfunction have focused on maintaining gut barrier function and promoting gut microbiota commensalism. The trajectory of critical illness may be closely related to gut epithelial barrier function, the gut microbiome and interventions that may contribute towards a deleterious pathobiome with immune dysregulation.
Author List
Patel JJ, Barash MAuthor
Mark Barash DO Assistant Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AnimalsCritical Illness
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
Humans
Intestinal Mucosa
