The Correlation between The Length of The Small Intestine and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Background: With an average length of 22 feet (7m), or three-and-a-half times the body length, the small intestine is the
longest segment of the digestive tract.
Aim: To determine the relationship between small intestine lengths and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) after controlling
for glycemic control, age, sex, and BMI.
Patients and Methods: A total of 268 patients (167 men and 101 women) who came to Kasr Alainy Hospital with a
recommendation for open abdominal exploration were included in this prospective cross-sectional research.
Results: Total small bowel length was significantly longer among nondiabetic group than diabetic group (413±53cm
in nondiabetics vs. 383±30cm in the diabetics) with P value 0.0001. BMI, random blood sugar (RBS), and glycated
hemoglobin were significantly higher among the diabetic group with P values 0.0001, 0.0001, and 0.0001, respectively.
Type 2 DM can independently predict shorter small bowel length with P value 0.011, odds ratio 10.7(95% confidence
interval: 1.7–67.6) after adjustment for age, sex, and BMI. RBS can independently predict shorter small bowel length with
P value 0.006, odds ratio 0.96(0.94–0.99).
Conclusion: Type 2 DM is associated with shorter small bowel, poor glycemic control is associated with shorter small
bowel. Total length of small bowel was significantly shorter in patients with higher RBS more than 200mg/dl and higher
glycated hemoglobin more than 6.5%. Type 2 DM can independently predict shorter small bowel length. Higher RBS can
independently predict shorter small bowel length.

Keywords

The Egyptian Journal of Surgery
Volume 44, Issue 2
April 2025
Pages 807-811

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics