A Guide to Wearing a Colostomy Pouch for Colorectal and Anal Cancer Patients

How long Colorectal and Anal cancer patients can wear their pouch depends on how long it can keep its seal. The seal can vary with the type of pouch as they keep their seals for different amounts of time. This time period is also influenced by how the pouch fits, as well as several other factors that are personal. Many will be determined by your life style.

• Changes in body weight, either gain or loss, changes abdominal contours and can affect your pouching system's wearing time.

• Your activity level will influence the length of time you can wear your pouch. Swimming, very strenuous sports, or work that causes perspiration, may cut down on wearing time. Moist or oily skin may also reduce adhesion.

• The nature of your stool, the weather, diet, and body contours near the stoma also may affect wearing time.

• Avoiding contact with fecal discharge on the peristomal skin, the skin surrounding the stoma, is very important in colostomy management. This discharge may be made up of the feces and/or digestive enzymes. The looser the stool the more irritating the discharge may be. Firm stool causes fewer skin problems.

• Leaks or a poor fitting pouching system may contribute to skin problems such as skin irritations, rashes or a breakdown of peristomal skin.

Preventing Skin Irritation

One way to prevent skin irritation is to cut the wafer that surrounds the skin to the right size and to apply your pouch correctly. Peristomal skin should be washed with plain soap that leaves no residue, such as Dial Gold® or Zest®, and then rinsed with clean water. Every time you change your pouch, you need to carefully clean and dry the skin around the stoma.

How Long to Wear a Colostomy Pouch

How long a colostomy pouch and wafer are worn depends on your body, how active you are, the weather, the nature of your stool, and the type of pouch you use. A closed-end pouch is used once and discarded, but you may use a drainable pouch for three to four days. You will need to clean it out regularly and then discard it.

Using Wafers

Wafers are skin barriers and may or may not attach directly to the pouching system. Wafers for two-system pouches come in regular and extended-wear. They can last two to seven days depending on the type of wafer, activity level, and stool output.