Anatom3DSmall intestine
Intestinum tenue · Tenké střevo
Digestive system
Looks like
Six metres of narrow, velvety tube coiled in the middle of the belly, its lining folded into millions of fingers.
What it does
Where nearly all food is absorbed into the blood.
Keeping it well
Regular meals, fibre, treat coeliac disease or infection; pale, floating, greasy stools mean absorption is failing.
Its parts
Related conditions
- Acute mesenteric ischaemia (gut stroke)
- B12 & folate deficiency
- Bowel obstruction
- Coeliac disease
- Crohn's disease
- Food poisoning
- Functional dyspepsia (indigestion)
- Gallstones
- Gastroenteritis
- Giardiasis
- Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
- Intussusception & pyloric stenosis
- Iron deficiency
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Lactose & food intolerance
- Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
- Necrotising enterocolitis
- Neuroendocrine tumours (carcinoid)
- Pancreatic cancer
- Pancreatitis
- Peptic ulcer disease
- Radiation injury
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
- Typhoid & cholera
- Volvulus (twisted bowel)