Colon Surgery

Why would I need colon surgery?

Your colon or large bowel is the last section of the digestive system before your rectum.

Surgery to the colon could be necessary to treat serious conditions like colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

What is colon cancer?

Colon cancer develops from polyps, small growths in the tissue lining your colon. Most polyps are harmless, and you’d never even know they were there. However, in some instances, a polyp can become cancerous.

Routine colonoscopy is the best way to detect and remove polyps before they reach a cancerous stage, but if you don’t get screened, and cancer has time to grow and spread, colon surgery might be necessary to remove the cancerous tissue.

What is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)?

The two primary forms of IBD are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These are autoimmune diseases that can affect the colon and other parts of the digestive system. They cause a range of symptoms, including:

• Inflammation
• Rectal bleeding
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Malabsorption
• Abdominal pain

IBD is incurable, but conservative treatments can work well for many patients. However, if you have very severe symptoms, you may need colon surgery to remove the affected sections of the bowel.

What does having colon surgery involve?

Colon surgery typically involves removing a section of the colon and then reconnecting the remaining ends. The amount of colon your surgeon at Flagstaff Surgical Associates removes depends on the condition you have and the extent of the problem.

Whether you have colon cancer or IBD, the aim is to take out all the affected tissue to help prevent the disease from recurring.

Wherever possible, your provider uses minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical techniques to minimize tissue damage and blood loss, and promote a speedier recovery. They use the robot-assisted da Vinci® surgical system to carry out colon surgery if you’re a suitable candidate.

Using a laparoscopic approach involves making several small incisions rather than the large incision needed for traditional open surgery.

There are also new techniques like transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) that use laparoscopic instruments but access the colon via the anus rather than making any incisions in your abdomen.

In some cases, your condition might be affecting your rectum as well as your colon. This can involve complex colorectal procedures that require temporary or sometimes permanent stoma and colostomy. A stoma is a hole in your abdomen through which a pipe delivers waste to an external colostomy bag.

If you want to learn more about colon surgery and the advanced techniques used at Flagstaff Surgical Associates, call today to arrange a consultation or book an appointment online.