Service performance

For some people intestinal failure may be short term, for example, if they are waiting for surgery to repair an injury to the small intestine. However, for other people it may be life-long depending on their individual condition. The Intestinal Failure Service facilitates the discharge of approximately 150 new patients on home parenteral nutrition each year and manages many other patients with intestinal insufficiency, as well as the long term follow up of patients on home parenteral nutrition. The IF surgeons have the expertise and experience to manage complex intestinal failure patients. 

 

Patient support services

Once a patient has been referred to us from their home hospital and accepted for assessment, they are transferred to to one of the hospitals in our network for an assessment and management, the length of admission varies according to clinical need. In most circumstances the patient is transferred to the hospital that is geographically closet to where they live, however there may be a particular clinical need that requires the patient to a specific hospital within our network.

 

During the assessment the patient is assessed for whether they are suitable for surgery, and their nutritional needs are looked at to see if any changes can be made to ensure the patient is fit for surgery. Each patient is discussed in detail at our multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting and a consensus holistic management plan is agreed.

 

In most circumstances we do not re-operate within six months to allow time for scar-tissue to heal, and so sometimes it is necessary to transfer a patient back to their referring hospital until it is safe to operate, or discharge them with home parenteral support.

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Patient aftercare

If patient undergoes IF surgery recovery usually takes two to four weeks. During this time the patient will be seen daily by the surgical and medical intestinal failure MDT.