All about bowel transplantation
Bowel transplantation is a type of surgery in which your doctor replaces a person’s sick small intestine with a healthy donor intestine.Generally, this type of graft is necessary when there is a serious problem in the intestine, which prevents proper absorption of nutrients or when the intestine no longer shows any movement, which puts the person’s life at risk.
- This transplant is most common in children.
- Due to birth defects.
- But can also be performed in adults due to Crohn’s disease or cancer.
- For example.
- It is only contraindicated after age 60.
- Due to the high risk of surgery.
Bowel transplantation is done when there is a problem that prevents the small intestine from functioning properly and, as a result, nutrients are not well absorbed.
Generally in these cases the person can be fed parenteral nutrition, which consists of providing the nutrients necessary for life through the vein, however, this may not be a solution for everyone, such as complications such as:
In these cases, the only way to maintain proper nutrition is to have a healthy small intestine transplant, so that the patient’s function can be replaced.
Bowel transplantation is a very complex surgery that can last 8 to 10 hours and should be performed in a hospital under general anesthesia.During surgery, your doctor removes the affected intestine and then prepares the healthy intestine.
Finally, the blood vessels connect to the new intestine, then the intestine connects to the stomach.To complete the surgery, the part of the small intestine that needs to be connected to the large intestine is connected directly to the skin of the abdomen to create an ileostomy, through which the stool will come out into a sac trapped in the skin, making it easier for doctors to evaluate the progress of the transplant by observing the characteristics of the stool.
Recovery after an intestinal transplant is usually initiated in resuscitation, to allow a constant assessment of how the new intestine heals and if there is a risk of rejection, during this time it is common for the medical team to perform various tests, such as blood tests and endoscopy, to ensure that healing is occurring correctly.
If the new organ is rejected, your doctor may prescribe a higher dose of immunosuppressants, which are drugs that decrease immune system activity to prevent organ destruction, however, if it heals normally, your doctor will request a transfer to a normal state.room, where painkillers and immunosuppressants will continue to be administered intravenously until the cure is nearly complete.
Usually, about 6 weeks after surgery, it is possible to return home, but for a few weeks it is necessary to go to the hospital frequently to get tested and continue evaluating the functioning of the new intestine.Always continue taking immunosuppressive medications for the rest of your life.
Causes that can lead to intestinal dysfunction and therefore intestinal transplantation include:
However, not everyone with these causes can have surgery, and therefore a pre-surgery evaluation is necessary in which your doctor orders several tests such as x-rays, CT scans, or blood tests.Some of the contraindications include cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, other serious illnesses and the age of more than 60 years, for example.