About one in four people with UC will require surgery at some time during their illness. Surgery is seldom necessary for people with proctitis, but if you have extensive or total colitis it becomes more likely that you might need to have an operation to remove all or part of your colon. Some of the most common reasons for surgery are outlined below.
- Poor response to long term medical treatment
UC is often well treated with drugs, but sometimes medical therapies fail to control the inflammation. If you have repeated flare ups with symptoms such as urgency and diarrhoea that seriously affect your quality of life, you may wish to consider surgery.
- Emergency problems
Surgery may also be recommended for people with acute symptoms, for example, severe diarrhoea with bleeding, dehydration and a raised temperature, if they do not respond to intensive medical treatment once admitted to hospital. Rare complications such as acute toxic dilation (distension) of the colon, or a perforated colon also require urgent surgery.
- Cancer of the large bowel
UC is not a form of cancer. However, if you have had severe Ulcerative Colitis affecting all or most of the colon and this has lasted for at least 8-10 years, there is a slightly increased risk of bowel cancer, which may require surgery. For more information on this see our leaflet Bowel Cancer and IBD.
- Involvement of other organs
Inflammation in other parts of the body, such as the eyes, skin, or joints, can sometimes be associated with extensive or total UC. Rarely, surgery may be suggested if medication fails to control these symptoms
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