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Intestinal fistula

Do intestinal fistulas heal on their own?

Do intestinal fistulas heal on their own?

A gastrointestinal fistula can be a severe condition that may spontaneously resolve but can sometimes require treatment. When a fistula does occur, it can take a significant amount of time to get better. However, with medications and nutrition management, most people will be able to heal the affected area.

Intestinal fistula

Gastrointestinal fistula is a health condition that occurs as a result of abnormal communication between part of the intestine with the skin or other organs of the body, causing acid to leak from the stomach.

This is considered an acute medical condition that requires close attention for an extended period of time.

Causes 

In general, more than 85% of cases of infection occur as a result of complications from surgery that a person has undergone. In a study conducted on 1,148 participants, it was found that 5.5% of them suffered from intestinal fistula as a result of abdominal surgery.

It is worth noting that most cases of intestinal fistula occur during the first week of surgery, so it is important for the doctor to discuss these complications with the patient and follow up after surgery to ensure his safety.

Other factors that increase the risk of developing intestinal fistula are:

  • History of exposure to radiation in the abdomen
  • Infection such as diverticulitis
  • Intestinal infections such as Crohn’s disease
  • ectoderm
  • Abdominal injury
  • cancer.

Intestinal adhesion symptoms

When an intestinal fistula is infected and stuck, the digested food is not moved properly and properly, and fluid leaks out.

Here are the main symptoms associated with infection:

  • Abdominal pain
  • Drought
  • diarrhea
  • high body temperature
  • Malnutrition
  • high heart rate
  • vomiting;

In many cases, intestinal fistula can be dangerous and may cause sepsis , where the body attacks itself as an abnormal response.

Sepsis can cause various other symptoms, including low blood pressure, high temperature, heart rate, and organ failure.

stages of infection

The stages of intestinal fistula are divided as follows, according to symptoms:

  1. Compound: It includes many channels that affect more than one organ in the body
  2. External: that is, the fistula is external and connects the intestine with the skin
  3. Internal: It is an internal intestinal fistula, which connects the intestines with internal organs in the body such as the bladder.
  4. Intestinal: includes the connection of the intestine with other organs of the digestive system.

Infection with an external bowel fistula, which is the connection of the intestine with the skin, causes an opening to appear in the place, and stomach acids and their contents exit from this opening, which causes damage to the skin.

Intestinal fistula treatment

The treatment of the injury depends on its severity and location, i.e. the stage as mentioned previously, and this is according to the following:

  • Small, uninfected fistula closes on its own
  • Colon fistula needs 30-40 days to heal, while the recovery period is 40-50 days if the small intestine is affected.
  • Treatment depends on how much fluid is filtered from the intestine through the skin.

As for the treatment, it is divided as follows:

1- Surgical intervention

Doctors usually advise patients with sepsis to undergo surgery in order to control it and stop acid and fluid from leaking out of the stomach.

2- Medicines

Having a fistula in the intestine would prevent the patient from eating properly and thus lack the nutrients he needs, which makes the treatment process difficult.

To avoid this, doctors recommend resorting to some nutrients through medicines and making up for the deficiency.

Complications of intestinal fistula

Intestinal fistula can cause a number of complications, including:

  • infection
  • Sepsis
  • An imbalance of salts in the body
  • Slow wound healing process .

source : wikipedia

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