The Quest for Light in the Misty Frontierland of Pediatric Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: Act II: Rome III Criteria.

摘要

The April issue of Gastroenterology (1) is entirely devoted to the reports of the Rome III Working Groups on functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). The publication of the third edition of the handbook is awaited later this year. We salute this formidable international, rigorous and concerted effort to clarify and define the nature of FGID. The authors of these reports described and classified a group of complex conditions based on new scientific data and validation studies.The Rome Diagnostic Criteria have their roots in the Manning Criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (2). The first publication of Rome I criteria for IBS and FGIDs (3,4) did not include childhood conditions. Pediatric diseases were introduced in the Rome II criteria in 1999 (5) and a chapter on childhood functional disorders was published by Hyman et al. (6). Childhood functional disorders were unequivocally placed on the map. The definitions and classifications provided would certainly help clinicians identifying specific functional disorders rather than considering them a last resource explanation after ruling out every possible organic disease. We all remember this first pediatric classification from Rome II for having tried to comply and incorporate it in our practices, as reported in Table 1.