Disaccharidase activities and intestinal absorption in infants with congenital intestinal obstruction

The results of studies on disaccharidase activities and on intestinal absorption in cases of complete and incomplete congenital small bowel obstruction are presented. Assays of the activities of maltase, isomaltase, sucrase, trehalase, and lactase have been performed on biopsy specimens taken at the time of surgery. In specimens taken from above the site of obstruction, the activities are reduced for all disaccharidases, and are particularly low for trehalase and lactase. There was no difference between the cases with complete and incomplete obstruction. Distal to a complete obstruction, trehalase and lactase were reduced, whereas in cases of incomplete obstruction, the activities of all disaccharidases were within what is considered normal in the reference material. Two months after surgery, the disaccharidase activities were found to be normal. One month after surgery, the absorption of glucose and vitamin A was markedly impaired in cases with complete obstruction, whereas that of D-xylose was not significantly reduced from normal. In cases with incomplete obstruction, the results did not differ from those found in normal infants. The fact that failure to thrive is common during the first months after birth in patients with congenital intestinal atresia, even when surgery is successful, may be explained by deficient intestinal absorption, particularly in patients with complete obstruction.