How do you sanitise the area to prevent infection? If you get surgery on the rusty sheriff’s badge, how does it not get infected the next time you lay an otter egg? Do they connect a colostomy bag in that case, to give it time to heal?
You can get a lethal infection from a paper cut if the right (see: wrong) bacteria get into it. Short of piledriving a snooker cue coated with hand sanitiser, I don’t know how a filthy corridor of doom like the excretory system can be kept free of bacteria after Dr. Bussy Torn MD has been rooting around in there with his weed whacker.
Surely antibiotics aren’t enough on their own to prevent infection? Anywhere else in the body, sure, but the chucklet waterpark is like ground zero for biological malevolence. It would be like wearing nothing but a steel showercap to keep mosquitos from biting you.
What dark arts are surgeons invoking here?
Patients are asked to clean their guts before major rectum and colon surgery,similar to what you do when you get a colonoscopy. Ideally that removes most if not all fecal matter and a significant portion of the bacteria.
Furthermore of course the colon is rinsed before the actual surgery and often during the surgery as well if necessary, if necessary with disinfecting solutions (but far less than one would think - it’s actually important to do so to the least amount possible,see below). Additionally wound closures are done with techniques that allow extremely easy healing in the most problematic parts and often multiple sutures are made to adapt tissue borders on multiple layers and in multiple ways. And during and after the surgery strong iV antibiotics are given to prevent infection. But it’s actually not a good idea to totally get rid of all bacteria. Especially the guts need a healthy bacterial flora to function and,and this is important here, to avoid “bad bacteria” to take over the space. There is more and more focus to make the right bacteria grow back on the colon/and to some extent the rectum, so there are some procedures that are now done with direct faecal transplants afterwards. Nevertheless often patients will not be allowed to eat for quite some time after an operation and are fed with intravascular solution during that time. Not a pleasant experience but sadly necessary. For more external operations (rectum) patients are also given stool softeners (medication that makes the passing of faecal matter easier) and advised to do disinfecting baths often, sometimes three times a day.
And of course the body is quite good at fighting bacteria and the colon and rectum - it is built to do so,the end of the whole “waste producing” system is outside the actual abdomen inside the pelvic sack,separated by a barrier. And the whole area is heavily supplied with blood (which is actually a good thing for infection control).
And last but not least for major operations there is always the option to create an enterostoma - an artificial opening/shortcut for people to get rid of fecal matter through it. These are usually done through the abdominal wall. After everything has healed up (usually after 6 months+x) the now healed colon and the small intestine/unaffected large intestine are connected back together and the artificial opening is closed.
(Sadly this is not always possible - then patients are getting a “Barbie Butt” - a behind without an opening. Mostly for cancer.)
Aren’t those bacteria important for gut health? I remember reading “Gut” by Julia Enders and keeping those bacteria balanced plays a huge role in digestion.
Absolutely and their role is getting recognised more and more. That’s why fecal transplants and special “gut bacteria growth diets” are becoming more and more important.
Could the patient save some poop (like in the freezer) to avoid having to do a poop transplant from someone else?
Yeah, Autotransplantation is far more common, actually.
That’s a little scary as I’m reaching the age where I should soon start getting colonoscopies. I don’t want to screw anything up by killing all the bacteria. Though I guess it beats not knowing if something is seriously wrong down there.
I also spent years cultivating these bacteria eating stuff all over the world.
Getting a colonoscopy doesn’t involve ridding the colon or rectum of bacteria.
FWIW, colonoscopies are no big deal. Sucks drinking the potion and blowing your guts out, all while starving for a day, but the procedure is kinda fun.
They lay you down, pump some pasty white in your IV. And you wake up stoned as balls and ready for mass food intake! (Yes, someone has to drive you home, I really mean you’ll be stoned.)
And for anyone who’s read this far alone: Do NOT shave your asshole. I was trying to make a presentable ass, like medical pros give a fuck, and shaved my hole and cheeks quite nicely.
And then the shitting potion hit. My. Gods. I was naked in bed, holding my burning cheeks apart, shaking all over. Picture working your crack over, all the way to the taint, with 220-grit sandpaper. Nothing too crazy, just enough to skin that top layer down to the pink.
Wife: What can I do?!
“Get Michelle! Fucking go get MICHELLE NOW!!!”
Wife: But you’re naked and sweating…"
“NURSE NOW!”
Michelle was the nurse next door. She got me some Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. Works for diaper rash, worked for me.
Normal colonoscopy will not kill your gut bacteria - just don’t eat garbage after it. Amongst others your Appendix will help.
I forgot about the appendix. I feel better now knowing my bacteria have a safe place to hunker down. :)
Follow up question. To keep one’s gut bacteria (assuming you didn’t have a c difficile infection etc but were doing very well with your microbiome) wouldn’t it be practical to just kinda… Poop a sample or two in the week before the surgery, freeze it, put it back at the end of the surgery? Assuming that washing/disinfecting will affect different kinds of bacteria differently and different growth rates and so on, it seems like a big gamble to assume that the right bacteria will grow back in the right ratio.
Poop is sadly not the right kind of bacteria, there are different kinds of bacteria depending on the location and the flora in the upper colon is the more interesting - Actual poop is not what you need/want as it is mostly “leftovers”.
Understandable, makes sense. Meanwhile, most gut microbiome analyses in science come from stool samples… Ironic. It also reminds me of the DIY fecal transplant guy on youtube who used his son’s stool sample
Not an answer, but I have to say you have a way with words.
A master of linguistic farts.
TLDR your immune system is heavily present in the area since there’s lots of bacteria and stuff up there.
You get antibiotics and they wash you quite thoroughly during surgery. I think it’s a combo of 3 antibiotics? You’re also not going to eat for a day or two and you’ll drink something to empty your colon. It’s not exactly a pleasant lead up
Movieprep or kleenprep I’m guessing. Basically it’s a powder you mix with water and then you take it every hour during the night. It’s like a heavy duty laxative, I’ve had to use it for endoscopies as I’ve ulcerative colitis. And it does totally clean you out.
I don’t know the answer, but you definitely deserve a round of applause for that hilarious question lmao
A similar question was recently asked on asklemmy. Caveat: there were many probably more informative answers there as there likely are here. However, I’d like to reiterate my answer:
I am not qualified to answer this, but I did once see a similar question asked on Reddit. The best response I saw was from a commenter whose name I can’t remember, else I would credit them.
That commenter said that his infant daughter had required an operation on her rectum. The commenter asked the surgeon how the surgery site could possibly not become infected and was told “the asshole knows how to handle shit.”
That answer seemed reasonable to me and I probably will never forget it.
…and was told “the asshole knows how to handle shit.”
That’s not a very nice way to talk about the surgeon…
It seems likely that the parent, rather than the surgeon, is the asshole most likely to deal with the site!
Our assholes are kinda crazy. The nerves can tell the difference in solids, liquids and gasses. Think on that! (I know, we’ve all made mistakes.)
I mean, yes, but you’re still expected to keep the site as clean as possible. It doesn’t mean the body just has it all figured out.
I had surgery not on my asshole but close to it, and I still had to change the dressing once a day, wash it gently, and spritz it with a disinfecting saline solution.
My experience in this matter is limited to the removal of a pilonidal cyst, so like you, near but not involving the rectum. My responsibilities were similar to what you describe. Nothing you say seems false to me (nearly a complete idiot on the subject); I think the surgeon in question was just saying that the area is more forgiving than might be expected.
But again … I am not an expert, barely even uneducated on the matter; I’m just relaying someone else’s memorable experience. I hope no one takes my quote as medical advice to disregard open wounds in the area!
I just googled for this, because I vaguely recall a relative having something like this?
Check out this article specifically
With some colorectal surgeries, you may have an ostomy—an opening created surgically to allow for stool or other wastes to exit—temporarily or permanently placed to address your condition.
I think part of your question related to how its kept clean after surgery? I think this addresses it
But if you make another hole upstream, how do you allow that to heal? It’d be extra holes all the way
downup.
I don’t know, but I do know docs can rebuild a damn sphincter, which is fucking magic to me.
Im not going to pull a picture because frankly its horrifying, but your iris (the colored part, namely the muscle that causes dilation) can fall apart with some condition. Which I was even more amazing can actually be reconstructed. Fucking wizards I’m telling you
Ah! I saw this in a medical journal last night! Was a case included in the paper I was reading about increased IOL after ICL implant. They didn’t show how they fixed it, but you could see that the iris was wrecked. Very cool stuff!
Not an answer, but a related song
Think about this. There is an issue called an anal fistula. It’s essentially a hole near the rectum that goes inside to the intestine, usually caused by an infection. The surgery to correct it can involve just filleting it open and leaving a big open wound.
I decided I don’t want to think about that.
