A stoma is the title given to a connection between your intestine on the within and the pores and skin floor of your tummy. A stoma permits waste merchandise – faeces – to be handed out of your physique earlier than it reaches the tip of your intestine. Your stoma is then linked to a stoma bag which collects the waste. A stoma has no nerve provide, so it doesn’t damage. If a stoma connects the colon (giant gut), to the floor the stomach, it’s known as a colostomy. Whether it is constructed from a connection between the ileum (small gut), and the stomach wall, it’s known as an ileostomy.
A colostomy and an ileostomy look fairly related, however there are some variations of their look and within the look and quantity of faeces that enters the stoma bag. The faeces coming from an ileostomy tends to be liquid and might be of fairly giant quantity (as much as 1 L per day, or increased within the case of some individuals who have what is named a ‘excessive output stoma’). The faeces getting into a colostomy bag tends to be far more stable and of smaller quantity and appears extra like regular faeces that’s handed usually into the bathroom.
A stoma might be everlasting or momentary. A brief stoma could also be used to permit your intestine to heal after bowel surgical procedure – as soon as your intestine is healed, your stoma might be closed and your bowel re-joined – that is known as a stoma reversal.