Pattern of growth after pediatric living-donor small bowel transplantation

Abstract: The aim of our study was to analyze growth in children who underwent LDSB. The question was whether these children obtain linear growth and improvement of the Z-score for height and weight after the transplant. Three children with a mean age of 24 months underwent living-donor intestinal transplantation with 150 cm of terminal ileum. At a mean follow-up of 27 months height increased from 82.5 to 97.5 cm although Z-score for height did not improve, −2.679 to −2.675. Mean weight increased from 11.4 to 14.2 kg while Z-score for weight went from −1.916 to −2.409. Although these data are pertinent to only three children and the follow-up is slightly longer than two yr, it appears that while long-term survival and independency from TPN is achieved, only linear growth might be expected and catch-up growth does not occur.