[Blind loop of the large intestine--bypass enteropathy or diversion colitis?].

Investigating three patients with longstanding diarrhoea, severe abdominal bloating and cramps revealed an exclusion of the right hemicolon in all patients and additionally of the terminal ileum in one of them. The anastomosis of the ileo-colic bypass, performed decades ago due to complicated appendicitis, was stenotic in two of them. Because a classical blind-loop-syndrome could not be proven, the functional disorder is described as a clinical entity characterized by signs of bypass-enteropathy and diversion-colitis. The importance of the radiological examination for diagnosis and therapy-planing is emphasized, because endoscopically and histologically Crohn's disease might be suspected. The surgical reintegration of the bowel into the orthograde continuity of the intestinal tract is recommended as the causative treatment. Symptoms disappear completely and patients win normal health even after some decades, because the morphological signs of inflammation are reversible and bowel function is not lost during the exclusion.