bleeding in the colon

  My elderly mother had two colonscopies and both times they cauterized areas that were bleeding.  Both times were unsuccessful. She again has shown occult blood in testing and low h&h test results which means she is bleeding again. She has been short of breath and extremely tired. They want to do another colonoscopy. Last week she had a blood transfusion and was overloaded and went into congestiive heart failure. She is now back home and has to follow up with her gastroenerologist. Is there any other way to "cure" this short of surgery?
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Dear Darlene,
I assume from your email that your mother has hemoccult positive stool without visible bleeding i.e. red blood with the stool.  If different areas of the colon were cauterized, i would guess that your mother has angiodysplasia, dilated submucosal veins and capillaries that can bleed.  These dialted vessels are often found at multiple sites in the small intestine and colon.  Consequently, surgical resection often does not prevent rebleeding.  
Therapy should be supportive.  Your mother should receive ongoing iron supplementation. When she becomes symptomatic from the anemia, she will need transfusions.  Giving the blood slowly and prophylaxing her with a diuretic may prevent her from going into volume overload.
Best of luck
HFHSM.D.-rf
*keywords: bleeding, angiodysplasia
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