Stomach Not Working

[deerslayerdave]

My brother had surgery about 9 weeks ago, and his stomach is not working.  I think they have diagnosed it as paralytic ileus.   He still has a tube down his throat to pump his stomach and is fed intraveously.   The doctors feel they have ruled out any blockage and told him to hang in there and it will eventually start working.  After nine weeks we are not satisfied with that.  Has anyone known of a case where it lasted that long, and/or is there a possibility that this could be permanent?  Thank  you.

Dave

[buffy37]

My dad is currently 18 days post partial colectomy (cancer) he is 78 and experiencing ileus. He has had an NG tube because his small intestines are still not "awake". He has had small bowel movements but not enough to have NG tube removed. I am too wondering if this can be permanent and what options are for him. He is too weak to do physical therapy and in and out of ICU.

Wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and if it may just take time due to his age and weakness.   He is in misery!

[patient915]

I don't know of any specialists in Houston, sorry.

[studentnurse86]

My grandmother is going through this almost exact same situation at St. Lukes as well. Do you have any recommendations on a specialist in Houston that may have seen this before? Any help at this point will help, it seems they are stumped on what to do from here...

Thanks.

[patient915]

Paralytic ileus means that the small bowel isn't working, not the stomach, so some of the things the doctor is tellling you seems off.  If it is just his stomach that is not working, and his intestines work fine, then he should be fed through a NJ tube not through an IV (called TPN).

[deerslayerdave]

As far as I know, they have not mentioned that his intestines are not working.  They have only said that the stomach is not working.  He has had about three small bowel movements during this period, but not much.  His stomach does not send anything through to the intestines as I understand it.  Basically, anything that goes in has to be pumped out of his stomach.   He is at St. Luke's in the Houston Medical Center.  

[patient915]

Sadly, the usual treatment is to just wait it out.  Did they say his stomach is not working (gastroparesis), his intestines aren't working (paralytic ileus), or both?  Is he at a large university hospital?

[deerslayerdave]

He had what is called the Whipple Procedure, which included removing part of pancreas, gall bladder, bile duct, part of stomach, etc.  They thought he had bile duct cancer, but as it turned out, he had no cancer, it was just scar tissue and damage from gallstones, at least that is what they said.  Thanks.

Dave

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  What kind of surgery did he have?