Gastrointestinal Fistula: Causes, Symptoms, and Diagnosis

A gastrointestinal fistulous withers ( GIF ) is an abnormal hatchway in your digestive tract that causes gastric fluids to seep through the lining of your stomach or intestines. If you have a GIF, you ’ re more at risk for infection when these fluids leak into your skin or other organs. GIF normally happens after intra-abdominal operation, which is operating room inside your abdomen. But if you have chronic digestive problems, you besides have a high gamble of developing a fistulous withers.

Causes of a GIF

There are several different causes of GIFs. They include :

Surgery complications

About 85–90 percentage of GIFs develop after intra-abdominal operating room. You ’ re more likely to develop a fistulous withers if you have :

• cancer
• radiation treatment to your abdomen
• a bowel obstruction
• surgical suture problems
• incision site problems
• an abscess
• an infection
• a hematoma, or blood clot under your skin
• a tumor
• malnutrition

Spontaneous GIF formation

A spontaneous GIF forms in about 10–15 percentage of cases, much as a leave of things like inflammatory intestine disease, malignant tumors, or intestine infections like diverticulitis. Inflammatory intestine diseases, such as Crohn ’ s disease, can besides cause GIFs. angstrom many as 40 percentage of people with Crohn ’ s disease develop a fistula at some point in their lives. vascular insufficiency ( inadequate blood flow ) is another campaign .

Trauma

forcible injury, such as gunfire or knife wounds that penetrate the abdomen, can besides cause a GIF to develop .

Symptoms

External fistulous withers campaign fire through the skin. They ’ re accompanied by early symptoms, including :

• abdominal pain
• painful bowel obstruction
• fever
• elevated white blood cell count

People who have internal fistulas may experience :

• diarrhea
• rectal bleeding
• a bloodstream infection or sepsis
• poor absorption of nutrients and weight loss
• dehydration
• worsening of the underlying disease

Types of GIFs

There are four chief types of GIFs :

• Intestinal fistula. With this form of fistula, gastric fluid leaks from one part of the intestine to the other where the folds touch.
• Extraintestinal fistula. This type of fistula occurs when gastric fluid leaks from your intestine to your other organs, such as your bladder, lungs, or vascular system.
• External fistula. In this case, gastric fluid leaks through the skin. It’s also known as a “cutaneous fistula.”
• Complex fistula. This type of fistula occurs in more than one organ.

Complications of a GIF

The most serious complication of GIF is sepsis, a medical hand brake in which the consistency has a hard reply to bacteria. This condition may lead to perilously depleted blood pressure, organ damage, and death. Since operating room or underlie disease normally cause a GIF, the condition itself can be a complication.

Prevention

Your prevention scheme will depend on the induce and the type of fistula. When the cause is a serious illness or injury, prevention is immediate treatment.

If the cause is another underlying condition, prevention may be about finding the best discussion or management strategies for the circumstance itself. The reality is that you may not always be able to predict a gastrointestinal fistula before it develops. however, you can take steps to prevent GIF before operation. In this case, doctors will likely want you to eat healthy before the surgery in the appropriate time, take medications to reduce acid in the digest, take antibiotics as a caution to prevent surgical infections, and empty the stomach before the procedure. Another crucial prevention strategy is treating all surgical complications immediately as they happen.

When to see a doctor

Contact your sophisticate if you experience any of these symptoms :

• a significant change in your bowel habits
• unusual or severe weight loss
• fever
• severe diarrhea
• fluid leakage from an opening in your abdomen or near your anus
• unusual abdominal pain

There may be many causes for these symptoms. If your doctor of the church doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate already suggest it, tell them if you ’ re at risk for a gastrointestinal fistula. If you have a history of incendiary intestine problems, or you ’ ve recently had operation, you ’ re at a higher hazard.

Testing and diagnosis

Your doctor of the church will first review your aesculapian and surgical history and assess your current symptoms. After that, they might do the following :

• Run blood tests. These will assess your serum electrolytes and nutritional status, which measures the levels of albumin and pre-albumin. These are both proteins that play an important role in wound healing.
• Perform an upper and lower endoscopy. Your doctor may use this test to view possible problems in your digestive or gastrointestinal tract with an endoscope.
• Perform an upper and lower intestinal X-ray. This may include a barium swallow if your doctor thinks you might have a stomach or intestinal fistula, or a barium enema if your doctor thinks you have a colon fistula.
• Perform a fistulogram. This involves injecting a contrast dye into the opening of your skin in an external fistula and then taking X-ray images.

Treatment of a GIF

Fistulas are classified based on how much gastric fluid is seeping through the opening. Low output fistulas produce less than 200 milliliters ( milliliter ) of gastric fluid per sidereal day. High output fistulas produce about 500 mL per day. Fistulas close on their own when :

• your infection is controlled
• your body is absorbing enough nutrients
• your overall health is good
• only a small amount of gastric fluid is coming through the opening

Doctors will treat most fistulas nonsurgically because 70–90 percentage of fistulas will close on their own within 5 weeks of treatment. Treatment focuses on keeping you well-fed and preventing wound infection. Treatments may include :

• replenishing your fluids
• correcting your blood serum electrolytes
• normalizing an acid and base imbalance
• reducing the fluid output from your fistula
• controlling infection and guarding against sepsis
• protecting your skin and providing ongoing wound care

Your doctor of the church may recommend surgically closing your fistulous withers if you haven ’ thymine improved after 3 to 6 months of treatment.

Long-term outlook

Fistulas close on their own about 70–90 percentage of the clock time without operation in people who are differently healthy and when they produce little amounts of fluids. GIFs most often develop after abdominal operation or as a leave of chronic digestive disorders. talk with your repair about your risks and how to spot symptoms of a build up fistula .

source : https://nutritionline.net
Category : Healthy