Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2018; 24(21): 2211-2235
Published online Jun 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i21.2211
Irritable bowel syndrome in children: Current knowledge, challenges and opportunities
Niranga Manjuri Devanarayana, Shaman Rajindrajith
Niranga Manjuri Devanarayana, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama 11010, Sri Lanka
Shaman Rajindrajith, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama 11010, Sri Lanka
Author contributions: Devanarayan NM and Rajindrajith S contributed equally for the concept of the paper, data collection, drafting of the manuscript and development of the final script.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Niranga Manjuri Devanarayana, MBBS, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Thalagolla Road, Ragama 11010, Sri Lanka. niranga@kln.ac.lk
Telephone: +94-11-2961150 Fax: +94-11-2958337
Received: March 26, 2018
Peer-review started: March 27, 2018
First decision: April 11, 2018
Revised: April 26, 2018
Accepted: May 11, 2018
Article in press: May 11, 2018
Published online: June 7, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: Even though irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common worldwide pediatric problem, little is known of its exact patho-physiology and management. Therefore, a large number of children are suffering from its intestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms. Novel research using new advanced technologies based on proposed top-down and bottom-up models of patho-physiology and treatment trials focusing on multiple combined interventions are likely to be more beneficial in understating and treating pediatric IBS. In addition, the time has come to explore possible prevention strategies for this problem.