A bowel resection is a surgical procedure that is performed to remove damaged areas of the intestines, colon, or rectum. This procedure might sound extreme but is probably the only hope that a patient would have after a case of colorectal cancer or Crohn’s disease. The former is a type of adenocarcinoma, which means that the cancerous growth is on the epithelial or outer most portion of the affected organ. This condition usually starts off as polyps in the colon and progresses to a point where the cancer can invade other tissues like the tissues of the reproductive system and the liver. Crohn’s disease is an autoimmune disorder of the colon in which the entire colon is perpetually inflamed. Autoimmune diseases are caused by the body’s immune system mistakenly attacking healthy conformant tissue. Most resections are major surgeries but in recent years, the advent of laparoscopy bowel resection techniques has resulted in the entire surgery being done with just a dot of scar to show for it.
Bowel resection with Crohn’s disease is a rather common form of treating the disease. This is required because the inflammation and continuous passing of blood and mucus can nearly kill the patient. Additionally, the presence of Crohn's disease is a precursor to the onset of colorectal cancer.
Being an intestinal surgery, it is required that your bowels are empty and that you do not eat any food for a whole day before the surgery. You might also be given an enema to clean out your colon.