The size of intestines in Vietnamese adults

ABSTRACT

The length of the small intestine of the Westerner is about 5-9 m long, whereas data on the intestinal length of Vietnamese patients is lacking in the liter-ature. This study aims to determine the size of in-testines in Vietnamese and the difference between fixed cadavers, autopsies and in operative patients. There were 130 subjects examined in this study intestine from 40 formalin fixed cadavers, 30 autopsies and 60 living patients. The cohort includ-ed 91 males and 39 females, with ages ranging from 18 to 75 years-old and origin from various social levels. Subjects were excluded from this study if there was current or prior GI disease, GI surgery, or any other abdominal surgery. The length of the duodenum was 24.3 ± 1.2 cm in for-malin fixed cadavers and 25.60 ± 1.4 cm in autop-sies. The length of the small intestine was 382.5 ± 45.5 cm in preserved cadavers, 442.3 ± 62.5 cm in autopsies and 556.2 ± 74.4 cm in operative pa-tients. The length of the large intestine was meas-ured to be 132.5 ± 17.6 cm in preserved subjects, 149.3 ± 12.1 cm in autopsies and 156.3 ± 14.5 cm in operative patients. The greatest diameter was the jejunum in autopsies, or 4.1 ± 0.37 cm, and the smallest diameter was the ileum in autopsies, or 2.5 ± 0.30 cm. In Vietnamese, the length of the intestine in surgical patients was the longest; in theformalin-preserved group was the shortest, and in autopsies group was in the average range. The length of the Vietnamese small intestine was short-er than that of the European and American sub-jects. Surgeons need to be aware of variations in intestine length so that resection resulting in small bowel syndrome can be anticipated or avoided

RESUMEN

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