Wake up colon

[Lee710]

My uncle recently had colon resection (last Thursday).  His colon has yet to "awaken".  He has been unable to take in fluids of any kind.  Is this time span normal?  When should be worried that he has no activity?

[HeinrikMD]

Hi,

The intestines have a nervous system of its own. The advantages of such a system is that you do not need to think about digesting you food, you don't have to command your intestines to get it done, it simply gets the job done independently. The downside of this, is that your guts may occasionally behave erratically, expecially when challenged with altered feeding schedules, and variable loads of food to digest. It reacts in its own way and recovers in its own time. You've probably had one of these, and learned from experience that your guts start to improve in a few hors or days or so.
During the operation, the anesthesia knocks out the normal cycles of the intestines. Hence, introducing any food at this time would not be digested. The bowels may become normal in a few days, 3 to 5 days, a week or so. If there are other diseases that affect the nerves such as diabetes, the time may be more protracted.
SInce he had operation on the colon itself, aside from the anesthesia, the swelling from the operation itself would also affect the awakening time.

[Morecambe]

I think the medical name for an inactive colon is "ileus".  In my own case it took 7-8 days for my colon to "re-awake" during which time I had a nasal gastric tube inserted in order to allow the stomach contents and bile juice to be sucked out.

I believe that if the ileus takes too long to pass over, then there are drugs that can be administered to re-start the peristaltic action of the remaining intestines.

Presumably your uncle is still in hospital - I suggest that he asks the doctors:-

- do I have an ileus?
- when do you expect it to vanish?
- what can you do if it doesn't and at what stage will you take these actions?
- why not start them now rather than waiting?

Good luck
Morecambe