Bowel Removed: What You Need To Know About Bowel Resection?
Bowel removed may present different health reasons. If you have colon cancer, this treatment can be prescribed by your doctor. A surgical procedure to remove any part of your bowel may leave a scar or blemish that may sometimes cause pain and itchiness. Treating scars using a laser is now the most advanced technique. Keep reading to know about bowel resection, including when you need this treatment, the preparation before the surgery, and its recovery time.
Having your bowel removed may present different health reasons. If you have colon cancer, this treatment can be prescribed by your doctor. A surgical procedure to remove any part of your bowel may leave a scar or blemish that may sometimes cause pain and itchiness. Treating scars using a laser is now the most advanced technique. Keep reading to know about bowel resection, including when you need this treatment, the preparation before the surgery, and its recovery time.
What Is a Bowel Resection?
A bowel resection is a surgical procedure to eliminate any piece of the bowel, such as the small intestine, colon, and rectum. Most specialists use this treatment to address diseases and blockages of the colon or the large intestine.
Furthermore, bowel diseases can put your life in danger. They can likewise hold the colon or rectum back from filling in as they should. This causes side effects such as pain and uneasiness.
Reasons for Bowel Resection Surgery
Your doctor might suggest a bowel resection to treat and prevent diseases that affect the colon, such as:
Bleeding that Cannot Be Managed
Extreme bleeding from the colon might require surgery to eliminate the affected part of the colon.
Bowel Obstruction
This is an emergency condition. A blocked colon may require complete or partial colectomy, depending on the circumstance.
Crohn’s Disease
If prescription medicines are ineffective, eliminating the affected portion of your colon might provide temporary relief from symptoms. Also, colectomy may be a choice if a doctor finds precancerous changes during colonoscopy, a test to examine the colon.
Colon Cancer
Early phase cancers might require just a tiny part of the large intestine to be removed during colectomy. Cancers at a later phase may require a more significant amount of the colon to be eliminated.
Diverticulitis
Your doctor might suggest surgery to remove the influenced part of the colon. This is ideal if your diverticulitis reappears or if you encounter complications of diverticulitis.
Preventive Surgery
Suppose you have a severe danger of colon cancer because of the arrangement of numerous precancerous colon polyps. In that case, you might decide to go through a total colectomy to forestall cancer in the future. Colectomy might be a possibility for individuals with inherited genetic conditions that expand colon cancer risk, for example, Lynch syndrome or familial adenomatous polyposis.
Talk about your treatment choices with your doctor. In some cases, you might have a decision between different forms of colectomy operations. Your doctor can discuss the advantages and dangers of each.
Bowel Resection For Small Intestine
Most digestion of the food you eat happens in the small intestine. Small bowel resection is surgery to remove a portion of your small intestine. A doctor or surgeon performs this surgery when a section of your small bowel is diseased or blocked.
Bowel Resection For Large Intestine
Large bowel resection is also called a laparoscopic colectomy. It is surgery to remove all or portions of your large intestine or colon. The large intestine attaches with the small intestine to the anus. Usually, stool goes through the large bowel before leaving the body through the anus.
Bowel Resection Surgeries
A doctor or surgeon performs colon resection surgery in one of three ways:
Open resection: A surgeon creates one extended cut or opening on the belly. They will utilize typical surgical devices to take out a part of the intestine.
Laparoscopic colon resection: The surgeon creates two to four little incisions on the belly. They place a soft, thin tube with a tiny camera into one cut on the belly. This procedure helps the surgeon to examine the inside of the abdomen. Then, they will use surgical instruments through the other cuts to eliminate a portion of the intestine.
Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery: The doctor or surgeon uses robots to do the medical treatment in this procedure.
The kind of surgery you will get relies upon your condition. The area and size of the infected or harmed colon are likewise factors. Sometimes, your surgeon might have to alter laparoscopic surgery to open surgery during the operation.
Preparation for Bowel Resection
First, you will go into your doctor’s office. You will examine your medical history and check what medications you are taking. You will likewise get an electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, and blood tests.
Long before your surgery, your physician might advise you to quit taking some medicines and supplements. They will also inform you how to get ready for the treatment. In addition, you will have to keep away from solid foods to make your bowels clear the day before surgery. In any case, clear liquids are okay such as apple juice and broth.
Moreover, the night before and the morning of your surgery, you will have to shower with an antiseptic wash to help forestall infections.
During The Method
Since this is major surgery, you will have to check into a hospital. Before the surgeon may proceed, you will receive general anesthesia. This will help you not to feel anything during surgery. In fact, you will be in the unconscious, sleep-like state at this level.
During the method, a surgeon will separate the large bowel from the encompassing organs and tissue. Then, the surgeon removes the diseased or damaged portion of the bowel. They will reattach the healthy ends of the intestine with tiny stitches.
For some bowel resections, the surgeon will require a colostomy. This is where the surgeon makes an opening, called a stoma, for feces to pass into a colostomy bag. Also, they will do a colostomy if there is a problem that might hold the two ends of the intestine from recovering correctly. A few stomas are brief. Following 6 to 12 weeks, you will need a subsequent surgery.
Had your Bowel Removed: What’s next?
Mostly, you will stay in the hospital for around 2 to 4 days after the surgery. Your doctor or nurse will guide you on caring for your wound, and some medications help ease the pain. If you have a stoma, they will teach you how to manage it.
Just after the surgery, you will have to drink liquids and might be able to eat solid foods the next day. Your doctor may recommend eating a low-fiber diet for a month.
After 1 to 2 weeks, you might have the option to return to most of your usual activities like walking and working. Avoid lifting anything more than 10 pounds or do vigorous exercises until you get your doctor’s approval. For the most part, it takes around 6 weeks to recover completely.
References:
Bowel Resection.
https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hw252327
Colectomy.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/colectomy
Diverticular disease and diverticulitis.
Laparoscopic Colectomy.
https://www.sages.org/wiki/laparoscopic-colectomy/
Robot-assisted laparoscopy.
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/robot-assisted-laparoscopy
