ABSTRACT
Patients in whom signi—cant amounts of small bowel is resected or nonfunctional, managing drug therapy with orally administered medication is a critical but often overlooked component of patient care. As per a report by the American Gastrointestinal Association, “Oral medication absorption is often impaired and larger doses, intravenous, or sublingual (SL) delivery may be required; signi—cant interpatient variability may be observed” [1, p. 1116]. To further complicate matters, even in a healthy individual without intestinal failure (IF), the exact location within the intestinal tract where a medication is absorbed is not known nor are the speci—c factors that can impact it, making it even more challenging to determine drug response in a patient with dysmotility or an intestinal resection. The function of the remaining bowel, the presence (or absence) of terminal ileum, and the pH within the intestine can all be altered, further in«uencing the extent of medication absorption.
