LETTER
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Stanley M. Charnoff, MD
15 September 1995 | Volume 123 Issue 6 | Page 471
TO THE EDITOR:
The long-term study of the irritable bowel syndrome by Owens and colleagues [1] appears to confirm the generally benign course found by others. The authors recorded hospital admissions and surgeries but make no comment in this area. They note that 100 of 112 patients were subjected to one of four types of surgery (appendectomy, hysterectomy, cholecystectomy, or laparotomy).
This finding raises several pertinent questions about the relation between the diagnosis of the irritable bowel syndrome and the need for abdominal or pelvic surgery. Was the primary diagnosis correct? Were the surgeries done because of misdiagnosis of symptoms produced by the irritable bowel syndrome? In how many of the patients who had surgery did the symptoms provoking surgery disappear?
It would be valuable to have a control group of contemporaneous, age- and sex-matched patients attending the Mayo Clinic to note the number and types of surgery done. Perhaps we will learn that the irritable bowel syndrome is not as benign as we have been taught.
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Author and Article Information
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Sunset Park Family Health Center; Brooklyn, NY 11220
1. Owens DM, Nelson DK, Talley NJ. The irritable bowel syndrome: long-term prognosis and the physician-patient interaction. Ann Intern Med. 1995; 122:107-12.
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