colonic pacemaker for colonic inertia

[betterliving251]

Are there any doctors in the US that perform this procedure? I've tried looking online, but I only find articles about the research on it. I've read about gastric pacemaker procedures in the US, but I don't think that is the same treatment as colonic pacemakers.

[patient915]

You should have a lot more testing done so that you know what is going on.

[betterliving251]

Thanks for the advice. It just seemed to me that every other treatment involved removing the colon or part of it and I want to try to avoid that. Unless there are medications that could help revive the functioning of the colon that I'm unaware of. I'll look into some other doctors.

[patient915]

I wouldn't expect you to have nausea or vomiting, I was just talking about how a gastric pacemaker works.  I would recommend you get more testing done on your intestines and trying more conventional treatments before resorting to something involving surgery like a colonic pacemaker.

[betterliving251]

I don't know if it's just my large intestine or small intestine. I don't have any nausea or vomiting. The colonic pacemaker treatment sounds really promising from that article, but it doesn't seem like its being practiced anywhere. That article is from 2004 so you would think there would be at least some doctors performing it by now.

[CalGal]

There are several sites within the colon that apparently coordinate and send signals to adjacent areas of the colon to contract and move the fecal material forward. The pacemaker stimulates these sites allowing the neurons to fire and the muscles to contract. You may want to view this for more information: http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/139/7/775.pdf

[patient915]

Are you having problems with just your large intestine, or also your small intestine.  The way a gastric pacemaker works is that is helps the symptoms of nausea and vomiting that go along with gastroparesis (slow emptying of the stomach) but it doesn't actually speed of emptying of the stomach.  So I don't see how a colonic pacemaker would work, if it used the same means as a gastric pacemaker.

[betterliving251]

Thank you for the responses. I had the sitz marker test done and I was diagnosed with colonic inertia. I don't believe I've had any colon mapping performed. I'm just taking Miralax every day for my condition.

[CalGal]

The gastric pacemakers are not the same thing as colonic pacemakers. Currently I believe the only country that is testing/using colon packmaking is Israel. There was some talk a few years ago about doing testing and research of pacemakers in the U.S. but, to date, there's little information out on the subject.

Have you had colon mapping done to find out how much of your colon is not being controlled  correctly by your nervous system. And what other testing have you had done?

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  I don't know much about colonic pacemakers, but are you having problems with your large intestine only?  If so, then I would recommend looking into large intestine removal.