Diverticulitis Surgery
Diverticulitis surgery is a procedure that can help a person to manage their diverticulitis. This surgery is normally done for people who have longstanding disease that has been going on for a long time. Most of the time when a person requires a diverticulitis surgery, they have had complications from the disease. This means they have had the disease for a long time and have developed a lot of problems. Some of these issues can be the fact that the person has had multiple episodes. The more often a person has an attack of diverticulitis, the more prone they are going to be for another one. Each attack gets worse and worse and people end up having to take a lot of different medicines in order to deal with their diverticulitis if this happens.
Other times certain things can develop that require diverticulitis surgery. One of the surgical issues is a fistula. A fistula is an abnormal connection between organs that should not be present. This can happen when there is so much inflammation and damage to an organ that the wall of the organ erodes. As the body heals back together, the walls of the organ do not close properly. That creates a connection that causes problems and should not be there. An example of this sort of thing is a colonic to bladder fistula. This is a connection from the colon to the bladder, which means that feces from the colon gets into the bladder. This causes great issues and a lot of urinary tract infections. A colonic uterine fistula is also possible, which causes the contents of the colon to go to the uterus. This can also cause an infection and require a diverticulitis surgery.
Recommended reading: Brain Stroke Symptoms and Chronic Headache
If a patient continues to suffer repeat attacks of diverticulitis, a surgical treatment should be considered in order to solve the problem. It has generally been recommended that the surgery should initially be a removal of the sigmoid portion of the colon. This section is the last section before the rectum. This procedure, the sigmoidectomy, can be offered after two attacks of diverticulitis that do not form fistulas or other surgical problems. This surgery is normally done to prevent a future episode that would require emergency operation. Also, this sort of pre-emptive surgery can be done to prevent the need for a colostomy. A colostomy is when the bowels cannot be sewn back together and the colon needs to empty into a bag in on the abdominal wall.
Some recent studies have cast some doubt on the concept that emergency surgery needs a colostomy because the organs cannot be hooked up. It appears that the need for a colostomy to be made instead of finishing the repair is highest with the first attack of diverticulitis. Therefore, the recommendation that a removal of the sigmoid portion of the colon be offered after two attacks in order to avoid a colostomy in the future may not be true. This thought and practice should therefore be reconsidered in light of recent evidence that will change a lot of opinion. The recommendation for a removal of the sigmoid section of the colon due to frequent attacks of diverticulitis should consider the patent’s overall health and lifestyle, as well as the frequency of the attacks, and the problems that are caused with each attack.
It has become much more common in recent years that the diverticulitis surgery be an elective procedure. This allows the diverticulitis surgery to be performed using a laparoscopic approach. Most major and large studies reveal that the hospital length of stay is 2 to 3 days shorter if a person has a laparoscopic surgery to remove the sigmoid instead of receiving a standard midline incision. The hand-assisted laparoscopic method has been advocated and promoted by some surgeons. They believe that this technique facilitates the dividing of the different tissues and minimizes the trauma associated with the operation that can cause fistula tracts. Regardless of the method, diverticulitis surgery should be performed by and experienced surgeon who has a great knowledge of the procedure.