Stomas and related problems

Abstract

The word stoma is from the Greek word for mouth. It is an opening, usually surgically created, between a hollow viscus and the body surface. In describing a stoma, the suffix -ostomy is used; the prefix indicating which structure has been exteriorised (e. g. tracheostomy, oesophagostomy, ileostomy, colostomy, nephrostomy). This chapter focuses on gastrointestinal stomas, namely ileostomy and colostomy. The earliest record of surgical formation of a colostomy was by Littre in 1710 as treatment for an obstructing colonic carcinoma [1]. Ileostomy was first described by Brown in 1913 [2] as a temporary measure to rest the colon in severe ulcerative colitis; major problems with skin excoriation around the ileostomy prevented its general acceptance. In the 1940s, Koernig, a chemistry student who had an ileostomy, designed a rubber-latex appliance that prevented the ileostomy effluent from contacting the skin [3]. In 1952, Brooke [4] described spouting of the ileostomy to facilitate collection into a bag without damaging the adjacent skin. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.