Megacolon medical therapy

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Medical Therapy

Possible treatments include:

• In stable cases, use of laxatives and bulking agents, as well as modifications in diet and stool habits are effective.
• Corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory medication is used in toxic megacolon.
• Desimpaction of feces and decompression using anorectal and nasogastric tubes.
• When megacolon worsens and the conservative measures fail to restore transit, surgery may be necessary.

There are several surgical approaches to treat megacolon, such as a total abdominal colectomy (removal of the entire colon) with ileorectal anastomosis (ligation of the remaining ileus and rectum segments), or a total proctocolectomy (removal of colon, sigmoid and rectum) followed by ileostomy or followed by ileoanal anastomosis.