Ulcerative Colitis: When Surgery Is Needed - Topic Overview
Surgery is likely to be needed for ulcerative colitis when:
- Medicines and nutritional therapy have failed to manage severe symptoms.
- Toxic megacolon does not respond to medical treatment within 4 days (or sooner in some cases).
- Holes develop in the large intestine (perforation).
- You have colon cancer, a significantly increased risk of cancer (detected by biopsies), or a narrowing in the intestine that cannot be distinguished from cancer, even if you do not have symptoms of active disease.
- Severe, disabling complications occur outside the colon. But many complications do not respond to surgery.
- Severe bleeding requires ongoing blood transfusions.
- Slow growth or other serious complications occur in children.
People may choose to have surgery to improve their quality of life, cure ulcerative colitis, or prevent the possibility of colon cancer.
The Link Between Stress and Ulcerative Colitis
Ulcerative colitis can begin very early. At the age of 12, for instance, Amanda Sina Griffith found herself the object of a custody battle -- and was besieged by painful stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. “I’d had very mild stomach symptoms before; my doctor thought it was a bacterial infection. But now, it was worse,” she recalls. The diagnosis was ulcerative colitis. Now 31, the Norton, Mass., public relations consultant and mother of a 7-month-old still finds that when she’s under stress her...
Read the The Link Between Stress and Ulcerative Colitis article > >
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