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Microbial treatment in chronic constipation

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Abstract

Chronic functional constipation is a kind of common intestinal disease that occurs in children, adults and elderly people. This disease not only causes great influence to physiological function, but also results in varying degrees of psychological barriers. At present, constipation treatments continue to rely on traditional methods such as purgative therapy and surgery. However, these approaches can disrupt intestinal function. Recent research between intestinal diseases and gut microbiota has gradually revealed a connection between constipation and intestinal flora disturbance, providing a theoretical basis for microbial treatment in chronic constipation. Microbial treatment mainly includes probiotic preparations such as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Due to its safety, convenience and curative effect, probiotic preparations have been widely accepted, especially gradually developed FMT with higher curative effects. Microbial treatment improves clinical symptoms, promotes the recovery of intestinal flora, and has no complications during the treatment process. Compared with traditional treatments, microbial treatment in chronic constipation has advantages, and is worthy of further promotion from clinical research to clinical application.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81230057, 81200264, 81372615, 81472262), the Emerging Cutting-Edge Technology Joint Research Projects of Shanghai (SHDC12012106) and the Tongji University Subject Pilot Program (162385).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Linsheng Huang, Qi Zhu, Xiao Qu & Huanlong Qin

  2. Clinical Medical College of Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Linsheng Huang & Huanlong Qin

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  1. Linsheng Huang
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  2. Qi Zhu
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Correspondence to Huanlong Qin.

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Huang, L., Zhu, Q., Qu, X. et al. Microbial treatment in chronic constipation. Sci. China Life Sci. 61, 744–752 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-017-9220-7

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