Hugh James Freeman*

Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

*Corresponding Author: Hugh James Freeman, Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Received: August 14, 2023; Published: October 13, 2023

Abstract

In the past, over time, more and more medications were reported to cause diarrhea, weight loss and a small bowel enteropathy, sometimes similar to celiac disease. These failed to respond to gluten-free diet treatment; instead, removal of the offending medication often resolved the clinical disorder and the associated intestinal pathological changes. During the most recent decade, an increasing number of medications have been developed by the pharamaceutical industry, including drugs to treat common disorders, such as olmesartan for hypertension. Olmesartan was reported to sometimes cause a severe sprue-like enteropathy. Rarely, even a fatal outcome was described. New biological agents have also been developed for severe treatment-resistant inflammatory disorders along with advanced malignancies, including metastatic melanoma. In particular, attention has focused on monoclonal antibodies acting as checkpoint inhibitors (eg., ipilimumab) that may result in a superimposed and profound sprue-like small intestinal disease with marked diarrhea and weight loss.

Keywords: Sprue-Like Enteropathy; Drug-Induced Small Bowel Disease; Celiac Disease; Refractory Sprue

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Citation

Citation: Hugh James Freeman. “Medication-Induced Small Bowel Enteropathy".Acta Scientific Gastrointestinal Disorders 6.11 (2023): 26-29.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Hugh James Freeman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.