Disability in Children and Adolescents With Irritable Bowel Syndrome and/or Fibromyalgia.

To compare disability and emotional health in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), fibromyalgia, or both, patients completed the Questionnaire on Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms-Rome III, childhood Functional Disability Inventory (FDI), and the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition. Patients' (age range 8-18 years, 19 IBS, 12 fibromyalgia, and 12 both) FDI scores showed greater disability than scores from historically healthy patients. Fibromyalgia (FDI 22.5 ±â€Š12.7, P = 0.018) and patients with both (FDI 26.2 ±â€Š13.8, P = 0.001) averaged greater disability than those with IBS (FDI 10.6 ±â€Š7.9). Disability was correlated with anxiety and depression symptoms. Disability and psychological symptoms are important when evaluating individuals with fibromyalgia and IBS.

Colonic hyperactivity results in frequent fecal soiling in a subset of children after surgery for Hirschsprung disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Fecal soiling is a challenging problem in some children after pull-through surgery for Hirschsprung disease (HSCR). The prevailing perception is that soiling results from overflow incontinence; however, its treatment with laxatives yields mixed results. Colonic manometry studies are reported to be normal in most patients in this population. The interpretation of these findings does not support the physiology of fecal overflow incontinence in these children. The aim of the present study was to define the physiology underlying daily, frequent fecal soiling in children after surgery for HSCR using manometric techniques. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four pediatric motility centers in the United States participated in the study; medical records and manometric tracings (anorectal and colonic) of children (n = 59; 6.5 years; 48 boys) who had pull-through surgery for HSCR and presented with daily, frequent fecal soiling were examined. Children referred for evaluation of constipation who had normal colonic manometry served as controls (n = 25; 6.7 years; 12 boys). The patients with HSCR were divided into 2 groups (Hirschsprung disease groups 1 and 2 [HD1, HD2]) based on the absence or presence of high-amplitude propagated contractions (HAPCs). A control group that included children with chronic constipation was also studied. We compared the mean HAPC frequency between the HD2 and control groups. RESULTS: HD1 included 21 patients who had no HAPCs in fasting or postprandial periods. HD2 included 38 patients who had an average of 0.07 HPACs/min while fasting and 0.13/min in the postprandial state. In this subset the number of HAPCs in the fasting state (P = 0.04) and the postprandial state (P < 0.001) was greater when compared with controls. Additionally, there was a significant increase in HAPCs/min from the fasting to the postprandial state (P = 0.01). In the HD2 group 40% had colonic hyperactivity. CONCLUSIONS: Daily, frequent fecal soiling after pull-through surgery for HSCR may be due to colonic hyperactivity in some children. It is imperative that this unique subset be identified because the management strategy would include avoidance of laxatives, contrary to standard current practice.

Adolescents and young adults with Hirschsprung's disease.

A majority of children and adolescents who have successful surgery to resect colon affected by Hirschsprung's disease suffer from digestive disorders, defecation problems, or both into adult life. In those with persistent symptoms following Hirschsprung's surgery, colon manometry facilitates a physiologic explanation for symptoms and guides treatment. Only a few patients born with Hirschsprung's disease make it to adult age before diagnosis and surgery, but their management does not differ from that of children with Hirschsprung's disease. The quality of life for patients with Hirschsprung's disease depends on psychosocial factors and not on childhood suffering or chronic symptoms.

Gastrointestinal motility and sensory abnormalities may contribute to food refusal in medically fragile toddlers.

BACKGROUND: In chronically ill children who refuse to eat, surgery to correct anatomic problems and behavioral treatments to overcome oral aversion often succeed. A few patients fail with standard treatments. The aims of the study were to: 1) investigate motility and gastric sensory abnormalities and 2) describe treatment that was individualized based on pathophysiology in children who failed surgery and behavioral treatments. METHODS: We studied 14 patients (age 1.5-6; mean 2.5; M/F: 7/7). All had a lifelong history of food aversion and retching or vomiting persisting after feeding therapy and fundoplication. All were fed through gastrostomy or gastro-jejunostomy tubes. We studied esophageal and antroduodenal manometry, and gastric volume threshold for retching. We identified when gastric antral contractions were associated with retching and pain. A multidisciplinary treatment program included a variable combination of continuous post-pyloric feedings, drugs to decrease visceral pain, drugs for motility disorders, and behavioral, cognitive, and family therapy. We interviewed parents 2-6 months following testing to evaluate symptoms, mode of feeding and emotional health. RESULTS: We found a motility disorder alone in 2, decreased threshold for retching alone in 5 and both motility and sensory abnormalities in 7. After treatment, 6 of 14 (43%) began eating orally and 80% had improved emotional health. Retching decreased from 15 episodes per day to an average of 1.4 per day (p <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Upper gastrointestinal motor and/or sensory disorders contributed to reduced quality of life for a majority of children and families with persistent feeding problems. A multidisciplinary approach improved symptoms and problems in these children

Visceral pain-associated disability syndrome: a descriptive analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Pain-associated disability syndrome (PADS) is a recently defined term that describes patients with chronic pain whose restriction in daily activities appears disproportionately severe for the observable pathology. The aim of this study is to describe the features of a group of pediatric patients with abdominal symptoms fitting this diagnosis. METHODS: To identify factors associated with visceral PADS, we reviewed the records of 40 patients (18 males; age range, 7-21 years) with gastrointestinal symptoms severe enough to prevent school attendance or eating for 2 months or more. These patients, in whom pain was neither feigned nor self-induced, met the diagnostic criteria for visceral PADS, including failure of usual treatments and lack of a satisfactory organic explanation for the severity of the pain. RESULTS: The dominant symptom was abdominal pain in 30 patients, regurgitation in 5 patients, nausea in 3 patients, and chest pain in 2 patients. All patients complained of pain or discomfort, and all met symptom-based criteria for one or more functional gastrointestinal disorder. Disordered sleep was a problem for 39 patients. Factors associated with PADS included learning disabilities, unrealistic goals in a perfectionist, high-achieving child, early pain experiences, passive or dependent coping style, marital problems in the home, and chronic illness in a parent. All patients had at least two associated factors, and a majority had four or more associated factors. Possible triggering events included an acute febrile illness in 20 patients, school change in 11 patients, trauma in 2 patients, death of a loved one in 2 patients, and sexual abuse in 2 patients. Before diagnosis, all patients underwent extensive negative evaluations. Nearly all patients had mental health evaluations that ruled out eating disorder and psychosis. Medical management had failed, and surgeries worsened symptoms. In a majority of patients, we identified a comorbid psychiatric disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of preteens and teens unable to go to school or eat because of unexplained incapacitating symptoms should include queries about factors associated with PADS. To treat PADS, medical and mental health clinicians must recognize pain as having both nociceptive and affective components and address treatment collaboratively. Invasive procedures and surgery reinforce the cycle of arousal and pain and are to be avoided. Age for the onset of PADS in the preteen and early teen years suggests that developmental issues play a role.