Understand the Causes of Constipation as it Relates to Surgery
Surgery can inflict more than physical trauma on the human body. As precise and calculated as a surgical procedure is, it's traumatic. When a person has surgery, she is exposed to the procedure and to anesthetic agents, intravenous drugs and other assorted fluids and medications. Anesthetic agents and narcotic medications are significant causes of post-operative constipation, as is bed rest and decreased food/liquid intake after surgery. Knowing the causes greatly helps in the treatment.
Narcotic Pain Medications and What They Do
Patients are often given a mixture of narcotic pain medications before, during and after a surgical procedure to help with the treatment of post-operative pain. Narcotic are depressants, meaning they depress the brain's ability to interpret pain impulses coming from elsewhere in the body, thus reducing pain levels. Narcotics depress more than the brain. They slow respiration and digestion. They decrease the process of peristalsis in the intestinal tract, which is the rythmic movement of the intestines to push along and help expel food wastes. This slowed movement of waste material can literally cause a backup of feces that can become hardened and create a condition known as an impaction.
Why Hydration Helps With Constipation
When a person undergoes surgery, it usually involves having an intravenous line to administer fluids and medications. It's also necessary for a means of rapid infusion of medications or blood in cases of emergency. Even though we receive a reasonable amount of fluid before and during surgery, fluid intake is typically decreased afterward.
The large intestine is typically responsible for water re-absorption in the food wastes as it passes through. If this process is slowed by narcotic pain medications, it is affected even more by decreased fluid intake. As it proceeds to absorb water from feces, the body is not adequately replenishing the fluid, causing dehydration and further drying and hardening of the stool.
That's why it's very important to re-establlish adequate fluid intake soon after surgery; to prevent dehydration and restore proper hydration to all aspects of the body.
Post-surgery: Get the Bowels Moving
Just as narcotic medications and a lack of fluids lead to the development of constipation, lack of mobility is just as much of a cause. Prolonged bed rest after surgery also creates a slowing of bodily functions, further complicating matters of the bowels. Early activity after surgery has many benefits: the reduction of the risk of blood clots, pain reduction and restoration of bodily functions--not the least of which are the bowels. It has been proven that the more mobility , the better everything works.
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