The Aetiological Role of Antibiotic Prophylaxis with Hysterectomy in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Abstract

Summary Irritable bowel syndrome is said to affect 14 per cent of the population (Thompson and Heaton, 1978) and affects women more frequently than men. We have shown (Alun Jones et al., 1982; Hunter et al., 1984) that in two-thirds of cases presenting in East Anglia the symptoms can be controlled, both in the short and the long term, by the detection of specific food intolerances.