Nutritional Support After Surgery of the Colon

Abstract

The colon is the part of large bowel employed for storing, transporting, and expelling feces. This complex activity is due to the interaction between motor activity of the muscular wall, the absorption/secretion activity of the mucosa, and the microbiota activity which modifies the endoluminal content. The form and structure of the stool are the results of the influence of these different activities on the enteric material that arrives as liquid at the level of the ileocecal valve and that is discharged in solid state. Colonic surgery can obviously modify these activities resulting in altered motility, absorption/secretion, and microbiota composition, causing changes in the bowel stool, bowel transit, and defecation.