Abstract:
During or after abdominal or pelvic radiotherapy, a proportion of patients experience radiation enteritis, involving the small bowel wall, colon, and rectum. Symptoms include pain, diarrhea, bleeding, tenesmus, and obstruction. In most cases, symptoms are mild and self-resolving; however, they may also be serious and greatly affect patients’ quality of life. Although modern precise radiotherapy has reduced the incidence of radiation enteritis to some extent, radiation enteritis cannot be completely prevented, and currently, no specific therapeutic drug is available. The therapeutic strategy focuses mainly on symptomatic and supportive care and includes the use of pain relief, antidiarrheal, and anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as sucralfate enemas. Microbial transplantation also relieves symptoms to a certain extent. In addition, nutritional support and psychological intervention are often required. In this review, we summarized the advancements in symptomatic and supportive care for patients with radiation enteritis.