Ulcerative colitis in childhood: should the rectum be preserved at surgery? Long-term results in 50 patients

Fifty children subjected to surgery for ulcerative colitis were followed up for 9-23 (mean, 14) years. Of these, 22 had a colectomy and an ileorectal anastomosis, and 9 had a colectomy and an ileostomy with the rectum left in situ. Nineteen children with inflammatory changes in the rectum had a pancoloproctectomy and an ileostomy. The results of rectum-preserving operations were on the whole unsatisfactory. Most of the children made a good adjustment to life with an ileostomy. The high risk of malignancy in patients with an early onset of the disease makes pancoloproctectomy with ileostomy the method of choice even in children.

Ileostomy and excisional surgery for chronic inflammatory disease of the colon: A survey of one hospital region: Part II The health of ileostomists

To the ileostomist who asks, ;Am I as healthy as the rest of the population', the answer can be a qualified affirmative. There is probably an increased likelihood of his developing calculi in the urinary tract but, apart from this, there is no suggestion of diseases of a general nature to which he is more subject than another individual of comparable age. If the surgery has been undertaken for ulcerative colitis in the absence of malignant change and the patient has survived one postoperative year, then an assurance can be given that life expectancy is little less than that in the general population.

Ileostomy and excisional surgery for chronic inflammatory disease of the colon: a survey of one hospital region

Four hundred and fifty-three patients who underwent ileostomy and excisional large bowel surgery for chronic inflammatory disease at two teaching hospitals and 35 non-teaching hospitals within the North East Metropolitan Hospital Region during the years 1955-66 were surveyed through a study of hospital case records. The surgical results and complications are presented in part I; a study of the health of these patients after their discharge from hospital is made in part II in an attempt to answer the question posed by many ileostomists, ;Are we as healthy as other people?'