Ileostomy

       There are many things that can be said about ileostomy, but one comes as a surprise for most people: ileostomy is not a disease. Actually, ileostomy can be considered part of the cure for a number of very dangerous illnesses, which include colon cancer and severe digestive conditions. The complete textbook definition of ileostomy goes a little bit like this: ileostomy is a surgical procedure. Its main purpose is to modify the digestive process, by keeping the nutrients from ever reaching the larger intestine, the colon and the rectum. Basically, an ileostomy is a bypass for the larger intestine. Why would anyone want to do that? Well, the answer to that question can be a bit tricky.

       On the one hand, if the patient suffers from colon cancer, rectum and anus cancer or general intestinal cancer, the ileostomy becomes a pretty clear choice. The surgeon will perform this operation to save the healthy part of the bowels and remove the cancer - riddled one. Usually, when these procedures are done, the length of the intestines has shrunk importantly and they cannot reach the anus to finish the digestive process. Also, if the cancer is situated in the lower digestive tract and the colon or the anus have to be removed to keep the cancer from spreading, then the ileostomy becomes the only possible choice for these patients. You have to keep in mind that the nutrients have to pass to at least some part of the intestine for them to be able to help the body function. If they do not, the patient dies of starvation. It is true that a person can be fed intravenously, but that cannot happen for an indeterminate amount of time. The intestines must work, at least partially. This is where the ileostomy procedure comes into play.

       On the other hand, if you have problems with your digestion, like the fact that your intestinal inner tissue cannot absorb the nutrients properly, then ileostomy can be your solution as well. However, unlike the one used in cancer patients, your ileostomy would be only temporary and completely reversible. Its purpose would not be to completely modify the natural course of the digestive process, but rather to give whatever part of your intestine is suffering a break. Yes, ileostomy can be used as a sort of "time out" card.

       So what happens to a patient during an ileostomy surgery exactly? Well, the steps can differ from patient to patient, but the basic skeleton of the medical procedure is the following: the surgeon makes an incision in your abdominal wall as close to the healthy part of the smaller intestine as possible. Depending on the case, the physician will either remove the cancer - filled part of the intestine or simply cut the connection between the large intestine and the small one. Afterwards, a hole is created in the abdominal wall next to the small intestine. That hole is called a stoma (from the Greek word meaning "mouth"), which is then capped with a pouch. This pouch is going to be used for gathering the wastes that your body eliminates for as long as it is necessary. It could be weeks or months, in the case of temporary ileostomy patients, or it could be for as long as you live, for cancer patients.

       Ileostomy is a rather common medical procedure. In the United States of America, about 75 000 people suffer from ileostomy on a yearly basis and more than 2.5 million Americans live with ileostomy bags in their day to day life. Nothing that requires an ileostomy should affect people beneath the age of thirty, but between the ages of thirty five and sixty, people are the most vulnerable to several diseases, such as colon cancer and Chron's disease, all of them including ileostomy as a viable treatment step.