Intestinal Failure in Germany: Current estimate of prevalence, medical care situation and patient characterization – Update 2025

Background: Patients with chronic intestinal failure (CIF) often have decreased muscle mass, leading to a high risk of sarcopenia.1This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of low muscle mass and poor muscle quality using a Seca mBCA 525 bioelectrical impedance analyser.Methods: A subsample of 24 adults with CIF were randomly selected from a population included in a larger study (ethical approval; 21/SC/0316).Fat-free mass index (FFMI) (kg/m2) was used to identify low muscle mass (<18.2 kg/m2 in men; <15.0 kg/m2 in women)2 and phase angle (PA; degrees) to identify poor muscle quality (<5s ignifies poor muscle quality).3Results: Demographics can be seen in Table 1.Mean PA was 4.7and mean FFMI 16.6kg/m2.Low muscle mass was detected in 9/14 (64%) females and in 3/10 (30%) males.Poor muscle quality was observed in 10/14 (71%) females and 3/10 (30%) males.There were moderate positive correlations between muscle mass and hand grip strength (HGS) (r(22) = 0.645, p.001) and muscle quality and HGS (r(22) = 0.486,p.022).Conclusions: Low muscle mass and poor muscle quality are common in CIF.Research is required to understand how this impacts clinical outcomes including quality of life.