Gastrointestinal and nutritional issues in joint hypermobility syndrome/ehlers–danlos syndrome, hypermobility type

Gastrointestinal involvement is a well known complication of Ehlers–Danlos syndromes (EDSs), mainly in form of abdominal emergencies due to intestinal/abdominal vessels rupture in vascular EDS. In the last decade, a growing number of works investigated the relationship between a wide spectrum of chronic gastrointestinal complaints and various EDS forms, among which the hypermobility type (a.k.a. joint hypermobility syndrome; JHS/EDS‐HT) was the most studied. The emerging findings depict a major role for gastrointestinal involvement in the health status and, consequently, management of JHS/EDS‐HT patients. Nevertheless, fragmentation of knowledge limits its impact on practice within the boundaries of highly specialized clinics. In this paper, literature review on gastrointestinal manifestations in JHS/EDS‐HT was carried out and identified papers categorized as (i) case‐control/cohort studies associating (apparently non‐syndromic) joint hypermobility and gastrointestinal involvement, (ii) case‐control/cohort studies associating JHS/EDS‐HT and gastrointestinal involvement, (iii) case reports/series on various gastrointestinal complications in (presumed) JHS/EDS‐HT, and (iv) studies reporting gastrointestinal features in heterogeneous EDS patients' cohorts. Gastrointestinal manifestations of JHS/EDS‐HT were organized and discussed in two categories, including structural anomalies (i.e., abdominal/diaphragmatic hernias, internal organ/pelvic prolapses, intestinal intussusceptions) and functional features (i.e., dysphagia, gastro‐esophageal reflux, dyspepsia, recurrent abdominal pain, constipation/diarrhea), with emphasis on practice and future implications. In the second part of this paper, a summary of possible nutritional interventions in JHS/EDS‐HT was presented. Supplementation strategies were borrowed from data available for general population with minor modifications in the light of recent discoveries in the pathogenesis of selected JHS/EDS‐HT features. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.