wondering who gets them and what they are for?

A K-Pouch is an internal continent pouch with a small stoma on the side. The pouch must be intubated with a flexible catheter. This empties the pouch of fecal matter and must be done several times per day and a time or two at night. Depends on how much and how gassy ones food produces.

The K-pouch was developed by Dr. Nils Kock of Sweden in the late 60's. Some pronounce it Kock, or Coke of Kotch. Take your pick.

Some get a continent pouch from the beginning. Losing the colon from ulcerative colitis. Others my have a failed J-pouch and decide on a K-pouch. A continent pouch usually does not work well if one has Crohn's disease. [ The biggest problem with continent pouches is that the valve my 'slip' and begin to leak. ] One can get pouchitis. But Cipro usually clears this up in short order.

BCIR in Florida does a modified version of the K-pouch. Dr. Fazio at CC does the K-pouch. Continent K-pouches are performed on the west coast and in NYC.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bodoni,

I have uc and my colan removed and jpouch may be not working just wondering why would one get it other than just a bag just trying to make sense of it just incase i'm headed that way.. I'm being tested for crothns again and came up negative every time but they think my j puch is not working for me and I really dont wanna go back to the bag that didn't work well for me either alot of leak problems because of my open would and scar now.

So if I may have a better option please would like to make sense of to why one would get it over a bag and pros and cons of it.

The reason someone would get a continent ileostomy over a 'bag' is simple. You don't have to wear a bag! You just have a tiny stoma on your side. All you need is to wear a pad over the stoma to catch the moisture that the valve and stoma naturally produce.

The downside is a few pouches do leak now and then if the valve 'slips' and may require repair surgery. And as I told you last time, some will get pouchitis, but it usually responds well to Cipro.

This is from a post by Cynnycal (Becca).
You can also see the stoma from her pic in her posts. This will give you a better visual.
If you browse past topics you will find s list of docs who do the Kock.

Posted June 12, 2007 11:45 AM Hide Post
i had a bunch of good ones up on my cancer-sucks site but forgot to pay the hosting recently so for the moment the site is down.
here are some from my camera phone (not great quality, but enough to get the idea)

1) me about to insert the catheter: http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/photos/photo22/e4/2e/30...6cptlg7i8knb7koh3qbk

2) me taking the gauze off before intubating:
http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/photos/photo30/aa/61/f6...ejsn4tzu3phq4ix4fjid

3) me comparing the size of stoma to a dime and a 1 euro coin:
http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/photos/photo27/24/42/71...j143xjknod8t4he0e2r6

Jeffm,
Well I can think of many reasons to get a Koch pouch over an ouside bag, not all of them valid for everyone out there. It is really a question of life and lifestyle. A K pouch gives you certain vesimentary freedoms that an ouside bag doesn't such as bikinis and tight clothes...body image is another one, being nude with an outside bag is a little different than with just a stoma and a stoma cover. Depends a lot on your own personal hangups and point of view on an outside bag. There is also price....the cost of the surgery is high if your insurance doesn't cover it but then you have very low maintenance costs once you have the K pouch. No bags to buy etc...just the reusable tube ( I have kept the same 4 going for the last 5 years) plus kleenex or stoma pads to cover the opening.
Married or single, prude or not, shy or not, self conscious or not are all valid considerations. Ability to heal as well. Some of us heal better than others and therefore seem to not need repeats as often.
There are also the questions of precarity. There can be hernias and valve slippage as well as other minor problems that can only really be treated by a doctor who understands a Koch pouch, so if you live very far from the doctor or hospital that does them you may be force to go back for "touch ups".
Again, it is all very personal. I have had mine for nearly 30 years and only started having problems 7 years ago....but they seem to be recurrent and not easily repaired. And yet I still wouldn't want to trade it for anything else in the world.
Good luck to you and I hope that this answers some of your less technical questions.
Sharon

http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/photos/photo27/24/42/71...ln50ka4x29p5o9t47vo4

wow this may be a better route for me as the line of work I do thanks alot.