Long term Clinical Course of Post infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome After Shigellosis: A 10 year Follow up Study
Background/Aims A limited number of studies are available regarding the long term natural history of post infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI IBS) We aimed to investigate the long term clinical course of PI IBS. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted from a 2001 shigellosis outbreak in a Korean hospital with about 2000 employees. A cohort of 124 hospital employees who were infected by Shigella sonnei due to contaminated food in the cafeteria, and 105 sex and age matched, non infected, controls were serially followed for their bowel symptoms by questionnaire surveys for 10 years. Results The Shigella infected cohort showed significantly higher odds ratio for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) at 1 year (11.90; 95% CI, 1.49 95.58) and 3 year (3.93; 95% CI, 1.20 12.86) follow up, compared to their controls. However, corresponding odds ratio for PI IBS was not significantly increased at 5 year (1.88; 95% CI, 0.64 5.54) and 8 year (1.87; 95% CI, 0.62 5.19) follow up. At 10 year follow up survey, the prevalence of IBS was similar for the Shigella infected cohort and their controls (23.3% versus 19.7% P 0.703) Risk factors which were independently associated with PI IBS among the Shigella infected cohort included younger age, previous history of functional bowel disorder, and longer duration of diarrhea at baseline. Conclusions Patients who were infected by Shigella sonnei experienced significantly increased risk of IBS until 3 years after shigellosis, and modestly increased risk until 8 years, but showed similar risk of IBS with uninfected controls at 10 years post infection. PI IBS is quite a chronic disorder, and follows a long term natural course.
Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility