[Butterfly]

Just wondering if anyone out there has heard of a case with so many complications. My family member is in his 70's, has dementia, diabetes and parkinsons. He went for a colonoscopy in which they found a very large tumor which had to be removed via surgery. He had laproscopic surgery to remove it. It was not cancer. A week later he was still very distended, no bowel movement. Had second surgery-laproscopic again. Turns out he bled after the surgery and developed a hematoma. Hematoma was removed. Continued to be very distended. 11 days later catscan showed leaking from intestines. Immediately had a 3rd surgery this time the traditional large incision. Turns out where the colon was stapled together opened up and he had to get a colostomy It has been 4 days since the third surgery and he is still in CCU recovering on a respirator and is running a temperature. He has remained on the respirator since the second surgery. He has infections from the leakage and is on many strong antibiotics. It has been a nightmare. Any thoughts....

[UroDoc]

Unfortunately your family member has run into a series of complications which becomes more common in older patients and in those with poor health especially diabetes which decrease the ability to heal, increasing the complication rate especially the infection rate. hopefully they are getting better, good luck

[Butterfly]

Lately I have heard about others who have also had their staples open up on their intestines and needing a second surgery after their initial colon resection. Just wondering if others have had the same problem. Is using staples a new thing as opposed to stitching? Or is this particular hospital where these 3 people (that I know of) had the same problem - using a new brand of staples that are not working? Lots of questions - does anyone have any answers or any thoughts?

[UroDoc]

Staples have been used for greater than 15 years