Every person’s experience with a colorectal or small bowel disorder is unique based on their health, environment and goals for care. Your care team will discuss your diagnosis with you and your loved ones, then outline possible treatments, drawing on our access to the most advanced technology, wisdom of experience and insight from cutting-edge research.
Treatments Offered
Based on the severity of your condition and your health goals, our treatment recommendations can range from conservative to major surgery. While we offer our expert recommendations, the decision is always yours. To help, your care team is here to answer questions and explain any portion of the suggested course of treatment.
Options include:
- Medication
- Lifestyle changes such as dietary adjustments, adding exercise, quitting smoking or losing weight.
- Surgical interventions. Depending on your condition, that could be:
- Abdominoperineal resection. This surgery for rectal or anal cancer involves removing the anus, rectum and some or all of the sigmoid colon.
- Bowel resection. To help treat conditions like Crohn’s disease, diverticulosis, cancer or blockages, we may need to remove a portion of the small or large intestine and reconnect or resect the new edges to allow food to pass.
- Hemorrhoid banding. Also known as rubber band ligation, this is a non-surgical treatment for hemorrhoids. A rubber band is applied to the hemorrhoid using a special scope, cutting off its blood supply and causing it to shrink and eventually fall off.
- Hemorrhoidectomy. Your specialist will surgically remove the hemorrhoids and seal the blood vessels connected to them.
- Hartmann’s Procedure. Surgery to remove part of the colon and sometimes the rectum. The remaining rectum is sealed to create a pouch while the remaining colon is directed to a colostomy.
- Ileoanal anastomosis. Your specialist will remove the large intestine and make a pouch inside the body called a J pouch to allow you to get rid of stool.
- Ileostomy/colostomy. Two forms of ostomy surgery to reroute a piece of intestine through the abdominal wall to the skin of the abdomen where an ostomy bag is attached to collect stool. Colostomy uses a piece of the intestine while ileostomy uses a piece of the small intestine. These procedures can be necessary if you have bowel cancer or an obstruction, Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
- Polypectomy. Done during a colonoscopy, this is the surgical removal of polyps to prevent them from becoming cancerous.
- Proctocolectomy. A surgical procedure to remove part or all of your colon and rectum in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, severe constipation or colorectal cancer.
- Sphincterotomy. We’ll use this surgical procedure in patients with anal fissures or bile duct stones. An incision in the sphincter muscle eases the pressure that is preventing healing and helps increase blood flow to the area to help you heal.
- Sphincter-sparing surgery. If a tumor does not involve the sphincter muscle or pelvic floor, we can perform sphincter-sparing surgery to preserve the sphincter muscles and anus while removing the colon or rectum. This allows patients control over bowel movements.
- Spiral enteroscopy. This minimally invasive technique allows us to perform procedures in the small bowel and examine this section of the gastrointestinal tract. It’s a form of endoscopy using a thin, flexible scope that takes video images of the small intestine.
- Strictureplasty. When chronic inflammation from Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis cause strictures, or tightening in the intestines, this surgery can widen the areas, relieving pain and other symptoms.
- Emerging therapies such as genetic-based approaches.