Stoma Prolapse

Stoma prolapse

        The stoma surgery is considered one of the most complicated surgical procedures in the world. While it is, basically, only a by - pass practice, its implications run deep inside the systems of the body. Unfortunately, so do its side - effects and its complications. One of the most famous and obvious stoma complications is the stoma prolapse. Luckily, while being one of the more common stoma complications, the stoma prolapse is not exactly dangerous in the short term. Basically, one cannot ignore a stoma prolapse, which resolves the issue of its severity: most people visit their attending physician when they notice that something is wrong with their stoma, thus avoiding the need for an emergency intervention.

       To understand what a stoma prolapse really is, the patient must know everything there is to know about the stoma surgical procedure, from beginning to end. Now, nothing that either the patient or the physician could do will be able to predict the stoma prolapse. There are some factors that contribute to the prolapse, but none are certified as of this moment. When talking the strictly physical surgery, things go a little bit like this: the surgeon will open the patients' abdomen, look around for damaged parts of intestine or bladder and eliminate them. Afterwards, the surgical team will continue the procedure by creating an opening in the abdominal wall, aptly called a stoma (from the Greek word meaning "mouth"), which becomes the base of the by - pass. Essentially, the remaining part of the intestine or bladder will be attached through a rather complicated procedure to the stoma and the digestion or the excretion process can be restarted. On top of the stoma, in either case, rests a stoma bag. In this stoma bag will the waste be eliminated from the body.

       So, where does the stoma prolapse intervene? And, more importantly, what does it mean? Well, the answer to the second question is pretty simple: the stoma prolapse represents the modification of the stoma site due to the enlargement of the stoma from the inside. A simpler explanation is the following: the stoma pouch will appear to be located lower than the place you are used to and it will stretch the intestine or the urinary tract outside the abdominal cavity, but not outside the skin. It truly is not as horrendous as it may seem. Most people do not actually notice the stoma prolapse until it starts to bloat and hurt, which is rather late in the stages of this complication. What happens is that the muscles that hold the stoma open are not meant for something like this. In time, they tend to loosen and the internal pouch that holds the intestine will fall through the hole and into the portion between the inner epidermis and the muscle wall.

       All that sounds pretty gruesome, but the only symptoms that a patient presents with in the first stages is a slight swell of the abdomen, which is usually attributed to anything else, and some discomfort when sitting on that side of their body. However, stoma patients do not, usually, sleep on the stoma - side of their body, so that one is easier to overlook. Once the stoma prolapse advances, the symptoms become more and more obvious: the skin reddens, the stoma starts to pulsate and some of the fluid starts to leak out. This is usually the point where the patient notices that something is very wrong and they contact a physician.

       The stoma prolapse repair surgery is not all that complicated, but it cannot be avoided. On the one hand, the surgery is almost always successful and everything goes back to normal in less than a week. On the other hand, it is another procedure that you might want to avoid. Unfortunately, the only way to fix the stoma prolapse is through a surgical maneuver.