Colon transplant surgery..

Question, they can remove your heart, replace your arm, give you a new transplant on almost any organ.. But how come in 2013 the best surgery involving removing the diseased colon (ulcerative colitis) involves leaving a person with a bag on there belly, having to expose of waste in an extremely inhuman way.. Obviously the reason is beyond my knowledge, but my question is, how come they can't remove a diseased colon and replace it with a healthy colon from an organ donar like they would do for other surgeries, anyone know this reasoning?

Well, the problem isn't the organ rather it is the immune system. If you put a healthy colon in one of us, our immune system would still attack the new colon, and probably more fiercely than it would our original one. Any people, after receiving an organ transplant, has to be on immunosurpressants to stop the body from attacking a donor organ as it is identified as a foreign object.

Ahhhh, I see, the immune system part of it makes sense.. I figured the surgery had to of been attempted before without a good outcome, just wasn't sure the depth of it all

iPoop is completely right, this is the whole reason they don't do it, they can but it doesn't make much sense does it.

That's why it is an autoimmune disease and just healing the colon doesn't work. That's why when on meds that suppress the immune system the colon can heal but when you get off the meds you start flaring again.

Makes plenty of sense

It's also an extremely big organ. And when a person can live a perfectly normal life without one, with a jpouch or a bag, which there is nothing extrmemely inhuman about, there's not a huge need to keep trying for it.

"having to expose of waste in an extremely inhuman way"

There's nothing inhuman about having an ostomy and you'd do well to educate yourself and change your mind about that. I hope you find an easy remission and never need surgery yourself, but there are no guarantees in life and you'll find you're happier if you don't look down on your fellow human beings as "inhuman" because their bodies are different from yours.

Seconding all the responses above about rejection/recurrence of colitis... My brother is a Type 1 diabetic (autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas) and they don't do pancreas transplants for Type 1 diabetics for the same reason, it's a difficult transplant and the body would most likely just attack the new organ.

Awesome post.

I don't buy into the into the Autoimmune thing - so I'd actually like to dig up some results that show the "disease" came back and attacked the transplanted small intestine or colon... and that it was Crohn's or Colitis again and NOT transplant rejection.

I'd like to dig out the literature on this actually if anyone has any. My money is on it not coming back lol... Unless someone can show different or post a study where the entire Colon or Small Bowel was replaced and Crohn's or Colitis struck again.

Here's an article on someone that had this done in the UK for Crohn's.. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/01/bowel-transplant-let-me-live-again

My bet is GI's don't consider it cause you can get along fine without your colon, put a new one in and you risk rejection and further surgery - not return of the disease itself.

Here is a link to someone who has had this done for Crohn's... (complete small bowel replacement) www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=31907

In regards to the whole Autoimmune thing - No one knows... Everyone just assumes it's all autoimmune and says it's just going to come back. But that hasn't been proven yet that I am aware of. Also people just tend to assume the cause is "autoimmune" because that is what we are told... even though that may not be the case at all.

Maybe a large part of your depression stems from regret?

It does for me. I keep on regretting the decision I made to have surgery. The logical part of me knows it's a complete waste of time; can't turn back the clock, grow a new colon, etc. But the emotional part of me takes over whenever the ileostomy irritates me in some way (which is often), and I just end up reliving the last two years all over again.

I really, really wish I had carried on until I had either found some respite with my disease or ended up needing emergency surgery; I think I was at the end of my tether and made the decision in a bad frame of mind. I think there was room to keep on going for a couple more years, to try a few more things. I never tried them and the regret of that just makes me feel like crying sometimes. I should have paid more attention to the fact that a colectomy is an irreversible operation, but I just got desperate and glossed over certain things, I think.

www.gastroendonews.com/ViewArticle.aspx?d_id=184&a_id=7703

Here's something showing a pretty high 5 years survival rate for Crohn's for people who have had so much removed they have next to nothing left for their small intestine. I know someone with this.. short bowel syndrome. They eat and like right away they are in the can... But he still leads quite an active life. It's amazing actually.

I have not come across mention of recurring disease yet.

http://www.m.webmd.com/crohns-disease/tc/intestinal-transplant-for-crohns-disease-topic-overview

Might be some new info in this area.