Pediatric Intestinal Rehabilitation
Broward Health is home to one of the few centers in South Florida offering expert care in pediatric intestinal rehabilitation.
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954-759-7500
Your Child’s Health Always Comes F.I.R.S.T.
When children face intestinal failure, such as short bowel syndrome or nutrition absorption disorders, our Florida Intestinal Rehabilitation Support and Treatment (F.I.R.S.T.) program focuses on providing an alternative to an intestinal transplant.
Led by Debora Duro, M.D., M.S., the F.I.R.S.T. program combines highly specialized treatment and compassionate care to help your child on a path toward a healthy and full life. Our team combines multidisciplinary experience from specialists in all areas of pediatric and gastrointestinal care to help ensure your child receives high-quality treatment.
What is Intestinal Rehabilitation?
Intestinal rehabilitation combines medicine and dietary changes to train the intestine to gradually absorb nutrients and digest food. With the goal of giving your child a better quality of life, intestinal rehabilitation optimizes IV nutrition or, when possible, weans children off nutrition delivered through IVs all together. This helps avoid liver disease, also called parenteral nutrition.
The process involves several steps, including conducting an initial assessment after the child is diagnosed with intestinal failure, identifying a course of treatment, partnering with parents to provide home care, and scheduling regular checkups.
Learn More About How the Intestinal Rehabilitation Program Works
Why Choose Broward Health?
Dr. Duro is board certified in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition. She and the interdisciplinary care teams at Broward Health and the F.I.R.S.T. program are dedicated to creating enhanced outcomes for your child.
Research has shown that intestinal rehabilitation provides improved outcomes and quality of life for patients with intestinal failure.
- Patients who receive IV nutrition instead of transplant average a 96% survival rate after five years.
- Patients who receive an intestine transplant average a 75% survival rate after five years.
- Patients who receive intestine and liver transplant average a 62% survival rate after five years.
