Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Abstract

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a very prevalent functional disease and represents a major reason for consultation. It can affect the individual quality of life and the society due to enormous expenses for diagnosis, treatment and loss of working days. Even though a single pathophysiological mechanism has not been found yet, several possibilities have been nominated such as senso-perception and motor disturbances, the effect of stress and anxiety, serotonin receptor failures, abnormal brain areas activation, pain modulation differences and food intolerance among others. Recently, the study of gut microbiota has raised great interest among investigators due to the possibility of microbiota-gut interaction in the pathophysiology of IBS. The use of prebiotics and probiotics has gained attraction among gastroenterologists with variable results in the ease of symptoms. The description of IBS in patients with a story of recent gastrointestinal infection (Post Infectious IBS) has been advocated as a possible cause of symptoms in a cluster of IBS patients. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, the passage of cecal flora to the small bowel, has also been proposed as a frequent cause of IBS in non constipated patients. The study of Hydrogen breath tests in this patients and the treatment with antibiotics have raised some discrepancy due to interesting results in IBS. The relationship among intestinal microbiota and IBS will be addressed in the present update, considering the effect of prebiotics, probiotics and antibiotics in the development and resolution of IBS symptoms.

Biography

Fernando Man has obtained his PhD degree at the National University of Tucumán, Tucuman, Argentina in 1983 and completed a Fellowship in Gastroenterology at the Alejandro Posadas National Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He completed another Fellowship in Gastroenterology at the Saint Lazare Hospital in Paris, France and was Staff member of Gastroenterology Unit in the Posadas Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Actually he serves as Consultant at the same Unit. He is Past President of The Upper Gastrointestinal Department of the Argentinian Gastroenterological Society.