Colon Cancer Surgery

You shouldn’t think that it is the end of the world if you have just been diagnosed with colon cancer. This is because you can still conquer this disease by having doctors perform surgery.

Surgery in simple terms is opening up the patient and removing the infected tissue. But there are different types of colon cancer surgery. There are the basic ones to the more complicated ones and doctors will only know what to use after a thorough examination.

The first type of colon cancer surgery is known as a colonscopic excision. Before the infected section is taken out of the body, a machine known as a colonscope is inserted into the body. This will give doctors an accurate assessment of what is going on inside and then after applying a local anesthesia, the operation is done. This has been in use for the past 30 years and is usually conducted on an out patient basis.

The local excision is done by going through the anus to remove cancer cells in the colon. Once it is out, doctors will then have this examined by the pathologist to check what stage it is in and recommend if additional treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy is needed.

Another surgery is called bowel resection. Here, doctors will open up the abdomen to remove the infected tissue. Some healthy tissues may also be removed to ensure that nothing is left behind. Doctors will finish up by tying the ends together with sutures through a procedure called anastomosis, which is also done in closing up the abdomen.

In some cases, a temporary colostomy is done to patients that have rectal cancer. The patient will have to come back 12 weeks or 3 months later to make sure that the surgery was successful  and bowel function is back to normal. When a colostomy is done, it creates an opening on the skin on the left or right side of the abdomen known as the stoma. The only way to close it is to stitch the outside of the opening so that waste passes through this and into the colostomy bag.

If the colon cannot be saved, doctors will have to remove the whole thing through what is known as the abdominoperineal excision. Given that a lot of advancements have been made to treat colon cancer, this is rarely used and is often the last resort to prevent the cells from spreading to nearby tissues.

There are 4 types of colon cancer surgery and at times, is simply what the person needs to make this problem go away. The person should remember that the battle does not end there because he or she will have to go back to the clinic for regular visits to prevent this from recurring.

Should colon cancer surgery be not effective, the doctor will then recommend chemotherapy, biological therapy or radiation therapy. Treatment will be done over the next few months and the patient will have to put up with the different side effects associated with each one. This could be nausea, hair loss, mouth irritations or low white blood cell count and this is a small price to endure for those who want to live a little longer because failure to do so will make the cancer cells spread and be fatal.