Small bowel in typhoid fever

Twenty-eight patients with typhoid fever and one patient with paratyphoid fever were subjected to intestinal function tests (faecal fat and D-xylose) and jejunal biopsy soon after recovery from the acute phase of the disease in order to assess the residual functional and morphological status of the small bowel. The results indicate that almost 50% (14/29) initially had defective D-xylose absorption which recovered rapidly. No patient had steatorrhoea. Jejunal biopsies of eight patients out of 22 showed increased chronic cell infiltration; there was, however, no specific lesion. It appears that intestinal injury following salmonellosis results only in mild functional derangement of the bowel which recovers rapidly.