G.R.O.A.

COLOSTOMY CONTROL (and Irrigation) via Oasis News & Semi-Colon thru Laguna Hills CA (5/00)

Patients with a right-sided colostomy do not have as much remaining colon as those with a left-sided colostomy. Because of this, there is usually too little colon left. This type cannot be controlled by irrigation, but instead behaves very much like an ileostomy with a fairly continuous discharge.

The left-sided colostomy is often described as a dry colostomy because it discharges well formed stool. One has the choice of attempting to manage this type by either trained control or irrigation. Only one-third of the people who attempt to train themselves to control the colostomy without irrigation are successful in doing so. This type of training relies heavily on diet and medications to achieve regularity. Most physicians in the USA feel that control is more easily and satisfactorily achieved by irrigation.

However, there are some patients who cannot achieve irrigation control because they have an irritable bowel. This has nothing to do with the colostomy. It is just part of some people’s makeup. some, even before they have their colostomy may have had very irregular bowel habits. They retain those after a colostomy is performed so that regular irrigation does not assure them regularity.

If the condition exists, the physician will sometimes suggest that the patient dispense with irrigation since it will not produce the desired regular pattern, and the person may become frustrated trying to achieve it. In this case, the colostomy is treated much like an ileostomy with the wearing of an appliance.

Please, don’t change irrigation or non-irrigation routine without consulting your doctor or enterostomal therapist.

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