The stoma closure wound is usually left open, without external sutures. The internal layers are sutured.

Jan

Yep. 

My whole belly incision was done that way with a wound pump to drag around. Yes. It is painful.  But you have less chance of infection. That's hard to believe with the way it looks.  I saw everything but my guts when I looked at it. 

Just have to bear with it. It heals faster than stitches.

Richard. 

My old Stoma site was left open to heal too, although uncomfortable when getting up, either from a chair or out of bed I never experienced any pain and I didnt have a wound pump either.

My wound required the dressing changing, initially every other day, then every three days and eventually once a week until completely healed, which took about three months to completely heal, to the extent of not requiring a dressing.

In the meantime, I suggest you acquire and apply ilex paste around your stoma; free samples are available from ilex or maybe from your Stoma Nurse.

Before takedown, I endured the excruciating pain and discomfort of oozing and festering skin around my Stoma; I tried every product my Stoma Nurse provided and nothing made a difference whatsoever; that is, until I got hold of ilex paste.

  Within minutes of applying the ilex I noticed a difference and within 3 day the red raw, oozing skin had completely healed.

I continued to apply ilex paste around my Stoma for the next 6 months, as a preventative measure, until takedown.

Is the wound pump the grenade like pump that they use after surgery sometimes? Are you able to work with it taking no that long to heal and not need a dressing? I read that strange used a dressing for 3 months after .. it just seems like it would be easier to do with it stitched together like a normal incision.

Hi KC23,

Most surgeons opt for an purse-string suture closure (aka open closure). It looks like this:

FIGURE-2-Pursestring-closure.png

The muscle layers underneath are closed the traditional way, just the skin is left slightly open. It heals in about 3 weeks and ends up looking like a gun shot wound. So you might want to get creative with your story. Studies have shown that cosmetically, the outcome is similar in terms of patient satisfaction. It just looks uglier for the first few months. The reason it is closed this method, and not with primary intention / traditional suture methods is because of the infection risk. Technically, stoma closures are not "fully sterile" surgeries. This can increase the chances of you getting a wound infection. This method keeps any infective material from staying in your body and forming abscesses. All the gunk comes out as exudate and is absorbed in your dressing. Now, I was thinking the same thing, why doesn't my surgeon just do it the other way? I guess what made me come to terms with it was accepting how far I've come and not getting caught up in the little details. In the grand scheme of things, you've been through a lot and its not worth risking a wound infection and damaging your progress.

Anyways, good luck with your takedown. Take it a day at a time!

I should add that my incision site healed in 3 weeks, and I was dressing free then. Now the scar is just shrinking and changing colour (which in itself is a year long process)

My incision was stitched close and my surgeon took the stitches out after a while. Am I the only one who had stitches in their incision?