[Diagnosis of carbohydrate malabsorption].

After a review of causes and symptoms of sugar malabsorption and the usual diagnostic methods, the application is described of a recently developed procedure with high specificity and sensitivity: the hydrogen breath test. Examination of a large number of children shows that its sensitivity is higher than that of the procedures used so far, that lactose malabsorption is present in over 30% of the children with recurrent abdominal pain and/or diarrhoea; that in contrast to the prevailing opinion, malabsorption of sucrose in children is rare.