fistulas surgery questions

Hi everyone!  I have floated around this board for several years now.  Thankfully I have been in remission for about 5 years after numerous surgeries and lots of issues with even more questions.  My mom has CD too with very little problems in the past.  She now has a fistula and they are going to operate.  My experience with surgery was different becasue by the time they found my fistula it has abcessed and was a mess with lots of infection.  Also, that was in 2000.  So my question is to those who have been around for awhile.  My mom knows all about what I went through.  I was wondering if there are new things with bowel resection surgery now in 2008 compared to mine back in 2000.

Thanks!

Mom's in in her small intestines. Lapo would be great - I will have her ask about that. She is having surgery at one of the major hospitals in the state so they should be up on the latest stuff.

Hi Gail!  She hasn't said a whole lot about the surgery, but I can tell she is nervous.  She always takes awhile to wake up after any procedure so she worries about that even with a scope and light anestheia.  This will be her first surgery in her adult lifetime - possibly her first surgery ever and she is 63, but in good health.  She will talk with the surgeon on Thursday to find out more and hopefully set a date.  She knows some questions to ask becasue of all my surgeries and of course I have preped her.  She doesn't function well with a computer - knows just enough to mess soemthing up (and she will tell you that).  She will ask me to post stuff and do reseach though, so she wants to know.

Any thoughts you have are welcomed and appreciated.

hey, how are you mandy? i did not know that about your mom . maybe i missed it if you mentioned it before... i would just be inclined to ask the surgeon if hes done them before, what was his/her succcess rate, as in no further problems etc.. to be sure that it is done the correct way as in , if its colse together where its coming from and going to, one loop to another, she may be better off having the whole section taken out , rather than putting holes in bad gut already and having twice the chance for leakage later. in my experiance too, ask the dr what type of closure he/she prefers, staples or sutures. as for me if (ha! when~!) i have another, i will insist on a double row of sutures again like my last one. the time i have had trouble with leakage like bleeding or rupture of the anastamosis have all been with staples. never with sutures. some drs just prefer staples cause its faster and they dont have to master sewing. for most its fine but with my crappy anatomy and bad guts its not..