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Summary: You’re Treatment Options for Colon Issues I never set out to be as knowledgeable as I have recently become about colon surgery. First a few basics: The colonoscopy is the gold standard for detecting colon issues. If you wait until you have symptoms in the case of colon cancer, it is usually too late. Fecal occult blood test would not have found my polyp (it wasn't bleeding). Women especially should insist on a full colonoscopy: statistically women tend to experience more issues higher up in the colon whereas men tend to have polyps and cancers closer to the rectum. If you are going to test, get the best test. Second: So-called colon cleansing products have no effect on colon cancer, and it's highly dubious if they prevent it. Your abnormality may already been diagnosed as cancer, or you may have been told, as I was, that a polyp that size (between ping pong ball and baseball sized) is almost sure to contain cancer. A normal endoscopist is trained to snip small polyps, especially the common kind that grow on a stalk, with a tool called an endoscopic snare. If the endoscopist determines that the polyp is small enough, he/she just snips it automatically. If you are looking at surgery like I was, it is because your polyp is large, and/or sessile (that means it has a very broad base and is well anchored on the inside of the colon.) Bowel Resection: The current standard procedure for a large polyp if the rest of the colon is otherwise healthy is what I had: a bowel resection: meaning they basically remove the segment of bowel containing the polyp and then reattach the ends of what is left. Open abdominal surgery: Prior to the mid 90's bowel resections were usually done as open abdominal surgery. This means they cut a large incision in your abdomen to access the colon and they work through it. Modified laproscopic procedure: In the mid 90's they started doing this procedure laproscopically, i.e. they insert three small tubes under your skin and muscle layer and operate through the tubes. When they have dislodged the bad bit and bagged it and sutured the ends of the colon they then create an incision to remove the bad bit. This procedure is contraindicated for an obese patient or in someone who has already had multiple previous surgeries. There are three reasons why they don't: one, risk of perforating the colon, two, if it is cancer they need to be careful not to let any cancer cells escape to start a new colony, and three if it is cancer you would want to take the surrounding tissue anyway. My risk of cancer was considered to be very high. I of a case where the patient had a polyp too large for a standard endoscopic snare and they went in through the rectum with an endoscope with some souped up tools and basically roto-rooted the polyp, while another doctor made laproscopic incisions and watched the outside of the colon with a laproscope to make sure it didn't get perforated. If they perforated the colon they had a plan B, which was to go ahead and do a laproscopic bowel resection. According to two surgeons I consulted both ways work equally well. Your exit scar: Unless you are fortunate enough to have the latest minimally invasive surgery you will either end up with a big scar, or a smaller scar and three laproscopic incisions. The small incisions heal quickly. Summary: Bowel Cancer and the Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments Cancer of the bowel or colorectal cancer as it is commonly called is cancer that goes after the cells that are around the bowel itself. This type of cancer is really very curable if caught and treated early on. If it becomes advanced, the chances of a successful remission of this cancer are smaller. Basically what happens in bowel cancer is that there is what is referred to as a mutation occurs. The cells which link back to genes begin to become uncontrolled, and thus, a number of cells bunch together, forming cancer. Polyps are actually what these formations are called, and in this stage of pre-cancer, are called an adenoma in medical terms. Polyps can be removed via a colonoscopy if found in time. There are some colon cancers that do not actually come from a polyp stage, but come from lesions instead. These cancer types with lesions are usually on the right side of the colon. If colon cancer keeps on progressing, then the cells that have the cancer will fall away from the growing tumor, and attach themselves to other places such as the liver and also the lymph nodes. The bowel is blown up so that all details show. If bowel cancer is present, then the treatment options will be laid out. In some cases, they will need to put a temporary colostomy on the person affected, or if the cancer was really invasive into the colon, may need to remove the colon totally and leave the colostomy on permanently. Prevention is the key factor though, in colon cancer. You may copy / distribute / edit but keep this link below live: Article 1: YOU’RE TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR COLON ISSUES Article 2: BOWEL CANCER AND THE SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, AND TREATMENTS Category : COLON RECTAL CANCER Source : CANCER.TIPSTIMES.COM Licensed : CREATIVE COMMONS SHARE ALIKE 3.0
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