Stoma Surgery

Stoma surgery

        There are more than 75.000 people who undergo stoma surgery every year in the United States alone. If we take into account the rest of the world, the number of stoma surgeries performed yearly goes up onto the hundred thousands. In total, since the stoma surgery has been created by a team of American physicians in the late 1970s', more than five million people have been successfully cured from a number of diseases, using this surgical procedure.

       Stoma surgery can be used in the treatment of several illnesses, each of them more serious than the last. They almost always include the digestive or excretory system. For example, if the patient suffers from Chron's disease or ulcerative colitis, he or she can undergo an ileostomy. How, if colon or anus cancer is killing the person, then a colostomy can be life - saving. In the rare cases when a stoma surgery can help in the afflictions of the excretory system, it is called and urostomy.

       Now that we have established what the three main types of stoma surgery are, how about we learn what the surgical procedure entails in itself. Well, as you can tell on your own, nothing actually starts with the surgery. It all begins with a diagnosis. For instance, if a patient comes in with extreme abdominal pain, vomiting, dizziness and diarrhea, than ulcerative colitis can be easily diagnosed with the help of a few simple tests. If the colitis is advanced, then the ileostomy is the only solution. However, if the disease is caught in the nick of time, maybe the person could be spared from an unnecessary stoma surgery. Unfortunately, in the case of colon or bladder cancer, the surgery is unavoidable and, quite possibly, life - saving.

       The next step is nothing of what you could possibly imagine on your own. It does not entail getting directly to the operation theatre. No, not at all. First, the patient will have a couple of sessions with a psychologist. This might seem odd, but it really is not: the person must be prepared to live with an external pouch that collects body wastes for the rest of their lives. Some people cannot accept that from the very first moment when this option is presented to them. Therefore, the sessions become a necessity and not something used to delay the surgery.

       After the psychologist has given their agreement, the next step towards the stoma surgery can begin: the physical exercises and the dieting. You see, most patients do not have a stellar physical condition when they are admitted to the hospital, but their body must be able to sustain the transformation. For that to happen, they need to be in the best physical shape they can get in such a short time. Thus, exercising is a must during the pre - operatory portion of the treatment. Also, dieting is required. The reason behind that is that your digestion needs to be balanced before the surgeon goes in and cuts off a part of your intestine.

       Finally, after some blood work has been done and all the data collected, the day of the surgery has arrived. Practically, the anesthetist will help you sleep throughout the entire procedure and the surgeon will go in and do his or her job. They will cut through your abdomen, look around for the disease - riddled parts of your insides, eliminate them and then create the stoma. Said stoma is a hole in your abdominal wall that allows the remaining part of your intestine to connect to a pouch and dispose of the wastes, by - passing the anus and the colon.

       Once the surgery is done, you enter the recovery period. After a couple of weeks spent in the hospital, kept under close supervision by the physician and the nurses, you will be released and begin your life post - stoma - surgery.