Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about Stomers.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash stomers

or in the general surgery section of the Zero to finals surgery book. So let's get straight

into it. Stomas are artificial openings of a hollow organ, for example the bowel. The bowel or

urinary system is artificially opened onto the surface of the abdomen, allowing feces or urine to drain,

and this allows it to bypass the distal portions of the bowel or the urinary tract.

A specially adapted bag called a stoma bag is fitted around the stoma on the abdomen to collect

the waste products and is emptied as required.

A colostomy is where the large bowel or the colon is brought onto the skin.

Colostomies drain more solid stools as much of the water is reabsorbed in the remaining large

intestine. Colostomies can be flatter to the skin compared with

ileostomies which have to have a spout as the solid contents are less irritating to the

surrounding skin. Colostomies are typically located in the left iliac fossa. An ileostomy is where the end portion of the small bowel or the ileum is brought onto the skin.

The stools that come out of an ileostomy are more liquid

because the fluid content of the stool is normally reabsorbed in the large intestine.

Ileostomies have a spout which allows them to drain directly into a tight

fitting stoma bag without the contents coming into contact with the surrounding skin. This is because

the liquid stools are very irritating to the skin. They're typically located in the right

Iliac fossa. A gastrostomy involves creating an

artificial connection between the stomach and the abdominal wall. This is used to put things in

rather than to drain things out and it's used for providing feeds directly into the stomach in patients

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