Pattern of growth after pediatric living-donor small bowel transplantation

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.