Short bowel is a condition that occurs after single or multiple intestinal resections. The incidence of short bowel in Europe is 2 per million of the population and it carries with it lifelong morbidity and mortality. The initial recognition and management of short bowel in the adult population tends to occur in the postoperative period and in the secondary care setting, where specialist input from clinicians experienced in short bowel is often lacking.

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), also called periodic disease, Armenian disease, etc., is a prototypical autoinflammatory disorder where the underlying mechanism is the dysfunction of innate immunity, resulting in unprovoked episodes of inflammation.¹ Although considered rare worldwide, it is prevalent in people of Mediterranean origin; however, one can expect to encounter patients in all parts of the modern world. FMF is a monogenic disease with autosomal recessive inheritance.² Unlike other monogenic disorders, the diagnosis remains largely clinical, and it is important to understand the limitations of genetic testing. Another distinguishing feature is the well-established effectiveness of lifelong monotherapy with colchicine in preventing attacks and complications.³

Diarrhoea, acute or chronic, is a common gastrointestinal symptom in healthcare. In most cases, acute diarrhoea in healthy individuals requires limited diagnostic and therapeutic efforts, except for the replacement of fluid electrolytes, and stool culture in severe occurrences. Acute diarrhoea is often self-limiting due to short-lived reactions to food intake and bacterial or viral infections. However, diarrhoea can persist and fulfil definitions of chronicity when a month or more has passed since the onset. Here we discuss some basic mistakes that should be avoided when managing unexplained non-bloody diarrhoea that persists beyond the acute setting. In this context, the term 'unexplained' refers to a patient without apparent alarm features and where initial consultations have failed at making a diagnosis. We used an evidence-based approach and included aspects predominantly based on clinical experience when appropriate.

The term ‘gastroparesis’ was first coined by Kassander in 1958 to describe the fact that barium did not leave the stomach of patients with diabetes for over 24 hours — so-called ‘gastroparesis diabeticorum’. Nowadays it refers to a delay in gastric emptying that is associated with symptoms primarily of nausea and vomiting as well as the absence of mechanical obstruction. In 1958, 21 cases were described, but in 2019, 5 million US individuals were diagnosed as having gastroparesis. This rapid increase in prevalence is likely to have occurred because it has become much easier to measure gastric emptying and to attribute symptoms to this without necessarily thinking through differentials. The incidence of hospital admissions for patients labelled as having gastroparesis is rapidly rising, increasing at a much faster rate than admissions for patients with nausea and vomiting, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, gastritis or gastric ulcers, which are all remaining relatively static. Gastroparesis therefore represents a major healthcare burden. Gastroparesis can be idiopathic or is most frequently caused by diabetes (type 1 more than type 2) or surgical procedures that can disrupt the vagus nerve (e.g. Billroth gastrectomy, oesophagectomy, gastric bypass surgery and fundoplication). In this article, I describe the mistakes most frequently made in patients who have a suspected diagnosis of gastroparesis. I base my discussion on the available evidence as well as clinical experience in the field.