Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support
The Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support offers a focal point for patients in need of nutritional support. Some gastroenterology patients develop permanent feeding disorders requiring long term tube or intravenous feeding at home. Following discharges for these patients, the Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support continues to provide metabolic monitoring to maintain nutritional homeostasis and avoid the serious complications of sepsis, thrombosis and liver disease.
Small bowel transplantation is an area of gastroenterology not commonly practiced around the world. However, small bowel transplantation is a key component of the Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support’s work. The University of Pittsburgh’s 14 years of experience with 323 intestinal transplantations leads the field. While the one-year graft vs. host survival up until five years ago was only about 50 percent, recent figures show a dramatic improvement to over 90 percent.
The Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support is committed to improving nutritional care through basic research translated into clinical practice. Research studies include:
- The exploration of the interactions between pancreatic exocrine function and dietary intake with particular reference to interventional tube feeding and intravenous feeding in the management of acute pancreatitis;
- Investigation of changes in mucosal function in patients with massive intestinal loss during the 12-month post-resection adaptive period; and
- The study of the relationship among diet, colonic bacterial flora and colon cancer, specifically among native Africans compared with African-Americans.
The following Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support team members include:
- Stephen J.D. O’Keefe, MD, MSc – Director, Center for Intestinal Health & Nutrition Support
- Toby O. Graham, MD – Director, Nutrition Support Service
- Hossam Kandil, MD PhD
- Refaat Hegazi, MD PhD
- Amit Rania, MD
- Susan Rolniak, CRNP, MSN – Nurse Practitioner
- Patty Centa, MS, RD, CNSD, LDN – Clinical Dietician
- Suzanne Regney, RN, BSN – Nurse Research Coordinator
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