Why can't a j-pouch be made out of artificial materials?

Perhaps this is a dumb question, and maybe the answer is obvious, but if so I can't think of the obvious. The j-pouch is just a receptacle, a container, for faeces. If so, why can't an artificial pouch be created?? I can't see why you'd need living tissue for that.

If it's unfeasible, then please tell me why. I genuinely want to know why this hasn't been done before.

Interesting question and answer. I never thought about that.

Too much risk for the body to reject it even if it could be done. You'd be on those anti-rejection drugs like cyclosporine the rest of your life if it were feasible.

good point gary ! (someone please pass this on - gary has me blocked :-(

thanks dude -

Artificial joints & dental implants are made from titanium, which can bond with human bone. So-- a very exceptional material that does not immediately induce rejection by the immune system. / Old Hat (32 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

There are lots of people on the Ostomies board who have elective ileostomies for colonic inertia. With severe colonic inertia it usually takes a few HOURS to get everything to come out, along with high doses of laxatives, and often daily enemas. Now, when you don't have a colon your volume of fecal output goes up by a factor of about 4. So now you're spending hours times 4 each day getting the fecal matter out of your body, plus FOUR daily enemas?

Pluot said...
There are lots of people on the Ostomies board who have elective ileostomies for colonic inertia. With severe colonic inertia it usually takes a few HOURS to get everything to come out, along with high doses of laxatives, and often daily enemas. Now, when you don't have a colon your volume of fecal output goes up by a factor of about 4. So now you're spending hours times 4 each day getting the fecal matter out of your body, plus FOUR daily enemas?

Yeah, but I'm talking about an artificial pouch that has considerably smaller volume than the colon, which is relatively massive. The rest of the small bowel would work, so I don't see why you'd be spending all day long trying to push faecal matter out of an inert but small pouch.

Also, not everyone with colonic inertia spends hours a day pushing stuff out. Depends on the case and on the person. Some people just take a bucketload of laxatives once a week or fortnight.

Plus there's manual evacuation, which may be a possibility like it is with colostomies ('irrigation') and BCIR pouches. I don't even know whether an artificial pouch is remotely viable in the first place, so I probably am talking total codswallop anyway.

When I first heard of jpouch I thought it was an actual pouch somehow placed inside a person. Of course it didn't take long to figure out it wasn't.
It probably would be possible, however I think it would cause a big risk of infection. In order to be something that could be easily released and pliable it would have to be some type of material that could move around. Which would mean some type of plastic. If that were to tear the stool would release into your body. And that would also wear out eventually. Hip replacements wear out, so do knee replacements. Dentures often have to be replaced there isn't a replacement that works anything like the real thing.
Anti-rejection drugs can be just as dangerous as the UC drugs and transplants often require long term steroid use. That's something we have surgery to get away from.
Eventually there will be a surgery or an appliance different from what we have now, look how far it's come from 30 years ago. But I think as long as the jpouch works the way it is, with a relatively small failure rate there won't be much research done to change it.