This story is part of a series exploring human anatomy and physiology complexities. Each story in this collection showcases discoveries reshaping our understanding of the body's inner workings, ...

THE small intestine comprises the longest portion of the alimentary canal and yet receives small consideration in the diagnosis of intestinal tumors. The reason is the rarity of neoplasms in the small ...

A 50-year-old woman with Crohn's disease was taken to surgery for multiple strictures of the terminal ileum causing small bowel obstruction. Proximal to the diseased segment there was another diseased ...

The gut microbiome is an important ecosystem of microbes that lives in each one of us, and its strength affects our overall health. However, the small intestine is an underappreciated part of the gut ...

Atresia, a congenital birth defect, is a leading cause of bowel obstruction in newborns. The membrane that connects the small intestines to the abdominal wall is partially or completely absent in ...

The d-xylose absorption test is useful in the diagnosis of tropical and idiopathic sprue, 1–4 but results are variable in other disorders and in elderly persons without intestinal disease. 5,6 ...

Crohn’s disease is a poorly understood autoimmune reaction that causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Here's ...

Digestion is a process in our bodies that most of us take for granted -- we eat our food, and then let the body do it’s work. But if the digestive tract isn’t as healthy as it should be, it could ...