[Nutritional management of functional chronic diarrhea associated to malnutrition with peptide diet: a case report].

BACKGROUND: functional bowel disorders are characterized by an absence of structural or biochemical damage, but can lead to chronic diarrhea and intestinal malabsorption. If not properly treated, they predispose to a state of malnutrition that, depending on the underlying pathologies, could affect the evolution of other concomitant diseases. CASE REPORT: the relevance of this case stems from the fact that our 43-year-old patient, with multiple comorbidities, with progressive weight and muscle mass loss, after five years of inefficiency in the treatment of chronic diarrhea, achieves, on a peptide enteral formula basis, a good nutritional status and quality of life, which finally leads to the control of the chronic diarrhea and malnutrition. DISCUSSION: in the unintentional weight loss caused by long-term functional diarrhea, the choice of a peptide diet may have a fundamental role for a satisfactory patient's progress.