CONTEXT

Chronic intestinal failure occurs when one cannot (when a person cannot) digest food nor absorb fluids, electrolytes and nutrients essential to live. As a consequence, patients suffering from intestinal failure are dependant upon parenteral nutrition. However, this solution being restrictive and likely to induce medical complications. Alternatively, intestinal failure may be treated by intestinal transplantation. Yet this solution comprises a vital risk.

In spite of an increasing survival rate of patients undergoing intestine transplantation, surveys show that only 54% of all grafted patients were still alive in 2005. One of the main causes of death among grafted patients is graft rejection, either by direct effect in 9% of deaths or indirectly through sepsis, responsible of 50% of deaths.

Nevertheless, the number of intestine grafts performed every year is constantly increasing since 2001, with more than 140 grafts a year in the US. In France, the figures forecast 40 to 50 new patients every year.
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