Open Access<p>Toxic Megacolon: Background, Pathophysiology, Management Challenges and Solutions</p>
Author(s) -
Jiten Desai,
Mohamed Elnaggar,
Ahmed Hanfy,
Rajkumar Doshi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
clinical and experimental gastroenterology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 30
ISSN - 1178-7023
DOI - 10.2147/ceg.s200760
Subject(s) - toxic megacolon , medicine , megacolon , inflammatory bowel disease , sigmoidoscopy , disease , perforation , gastroenterology , etiology , intensive care medicine , peritonitis , ulcerative colitis , general surgery , colonoscopy , colorectal cancer , materials science , cancer , punching , metallurgy
Toxic megacolon (TM) is one of the fatal complications of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or any infectious etiology of the colon that is characterized by total or partial nonobstructive colonic dilatation and systemic toxicity. It is associated with high morbidity and mortality, and surgical management is necessary for the majority of the cases. An accurate history and physical examination, plain radiographs of the abdomen, sigmoidoscopy, and, most important of all, awareness of the condition facilitate diagnosis in most cases. Operative intervention is warranted when massive hemorrhage, perforation, or peritonitis complicate the clinical scenario or medical therapy fails to control the disease. We sought to review the management challenges of TM and its possible management strategies in this article.