Causes & Symptoms of Bowel Resection

The most common reason for a small bowel resection is when your small bowel, also known as your small intestine, becomes blocked by scarring or a hernia. Food and digestive juices build up in the bowel above the obstruction, causing vomiting and subsequent dehydration. A trapped or twisted loop of bowel will also obstruct the bowel above it. In this case, the loop of bowel itself can die, causing life-threatening blood poisoning, or septicemia, to spread throughout the body.

A small bowel resection may also be needed to treat a bowel blocked as a result of an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease. The bowel can also be blocked by gallstone or food. A sharp piece of food, such as a fish bone, can even pierce the bowel wall. In rare cases the bowel is damaged by a blockage of its blood supply or a cancerous tumor, which may be non-malignant (benign) or malignant (harmful). Occasionally a bowel may have been damaged in a previous operation.

Bowel Resection Surgery Procedure

There are three objectives of a small bowel resection: the operation will remove any damaged or diseased bowel, join the ends of healthy bowel together, and finally prevent the problem from re-occurring. By removing the cause of your small bowel problem, the operation should effectively treat all your symptoms, ending any pain and vomiting or hernia swelling. You would have a general anesthetic and be completely asleep for the operation.