Understanding Your Colon and Malrotation That Can Affect It
The colon of the average adult is 5 feet long. The colon connects to your small intestine and is also referred to as your large intestine. The purpose of your colon is to absorb water and salts from what you drink and eat and then to send waste products (content not needed digestible or old cells) thru the body and out the anus as bowel movement.
You have several segments or parts to your colon. These parts that make up the colon are called: The cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon, and the rectum.
Your colon was formed during the first 3 months of your embryonic development. Your small bowel and colon are held into proper position by tissue known as, “mesentery”. The ascending colon and the descending colon are held into proper place in the abdominal cavity, while the cecum, transverse colon, and the sigmoid colon are all suspended from the back of the abdominal wall by the mesentery.
While in the embryonic stage of development if your colon does not rotate completely, problems can occur, such as the condition called, “malrotation”. Part of the bowel can be blocked if the cecum is not positioned properly. The mesentery may also not be attached properly to the back of the abdominal cavity if the small bowel and the colon were not rotated properly during the embyonic stage of development. A disorder called, “volvulus”, which is when the bowel is prone to twisting.
Other gastrointestinal conditions, including Hirschsprung’s disease and bowel atresia can also be associated with malrotation.
The presence of malrotation is usually diagnosed in infancy, usually within the first month of life. Malrotation can occur in both males and females.
Infants with malrotation have the symptom of vomiting bile. Bile looks like a greenish-yellow fluid. This fluid is digestive juice that is normally stored in the gallbladder. If the child is older and has not been diagnosed yet, the symptoms may be vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, bloody stools, rectal bleeding and a failure to thrive.
The diagnostic tools used by doctors to diagnose malrotation are X-rays to discover blockage, an upper GI series to locate the point of intestinal blockage, a lower GI series in order to determine the position of the colon and a computed tomography (CT scan), which is used to determine and also to locate the intestinal blockage.
Malrotation can be a medical emergency in infants due to the fact that the colon twisting, the dividing of bands of tissue, the repositioning of the small bowel and colon can all lead to obstruction of the small bowel. The medical emergency necessitates surgery to do one or more of the following:
* Untwisting of the colon
* Dividing bands of tissue that is obstructing the small bowel
* Reposition the small bowel and/or the colon
* Remove the appendix
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