Bowel Resection from Colon Cancer: Risks After Surgery

Bowel surgery is a complex health procedure that affects thousands of adults each year. If you are a candidate for bowel resection surgery, after being diagnosed with colon cancer, it is important to become familiar with the possible short term side effects. In many bowel surgery patients, side effects are common but much easier to face when prepared prior to the surgical procedure.

In colon cancer patients, the most common type of bowel surgery involves a procedure known as bowel resection. With bowel resection for colon cancer, part of the colon is removed and the bowel is "resected" to the intestines in an effort to remove malignant tissue. This type of bowel surgery is very invasive and leads to life altering health changes.

In the hours and days after undergoing bowel resection surgery, your doctor will expect that you abide by a very strict diet that typically will be a predominant "fluids only" intake. This type of diet will transition into a smooth or soft foods diet that is very common to the irritable bowel syndrome diet. It is important, therefore, that discussions about diet, malnutrition, and issues with digestion be addressed with your physician prior to surgery. Without proper nutrition, you can develop even more side effects while fighting colon cancer.

In addition to malnutrition side effects and changes to diet, patients who undergo bowel resection for colon cancer will also develop complication risks associated with infection. While infection at the surgical site is typically what the think of first, these types of infections are normally fought with strong antibiotics. It is the antibiotic therapy that may lead to further infection '" often leading to yeast infection in the colon cancer patient. As a caution, be sure to address these types of risks with the surgeon prior to surgery and find out what you can do to alleviate the risk after bowel resection has taken place.

Recovery from bowel resection surgery is a long process but can be further hampered by short term complications after surgery takes place. To prepare your body for the surgical outcomes, be sure to ask your doctor about the risks and what you can do to mitigate risks in the hours and days after surgery takes place. In doing so, you'll have a far faster recovery and will be on your way to healing from colon cancer in a shorter time frame.

Sources: Diagnosis and Management of Bowel Diseases, by Paul Engstrom