What is the Colon?
The colon or large intestine is the last portion of the digestive system. It extracts fluid and salts from the waste materials passing through it before they are eliminated.
Colon disease is quite common and over 600,000 colon surgeries are performed each year in the United States.
There are various conditions that may require colon surgery:
- Diverticular disease
- Gastrointestinal bleeding
- Inflammatory bowel disease such as Chron’s disease and ulcerative colitis
- Intestinal polyps
- Large bowel obstruction
- Colon cancer
What is a Colon Resection?
Colon surgery generally involves a procedure called a resection where the portion of diseased colon is removed and the remaining pieces are joined together. This joint is called an end-to-end anastamosis. In most circumstances the surgeons at Surgical Consultants of Hollywood can use minimally invasive techniques to remove parts of the colon.
During a laparoscopic colon resection, the surgery is performed through a series of small incisions saving patients from the larger incisions that have been necessary in the past. This helps with a faster recovery, reduced pain and faster normalization of colon function, and a faster return to a normal diet.