Transplants have their own issues as well. Imunosuppressive medication is very expensive,you have to take it for the rest of your life, it is very hard on your kidneys,and increases the risk of melonona. So,like my Hepatologist said,you trade one disease for another.

Nope. For all those reasons techwrench said.

It's not so simple.

This topic comes up from time to time. Seems like a nice dream, but that is all it is. It will never happen because there is no justification to subject yourself to transplant risks (which are not small) to replace a non essential organ. Transplants are for life preserving measures, and are considered last resorts. They do perform total small and large bowel transplants in rare instances, but those are only for those with insufficient small bowel to sustain life and complications from long term TPN. But not just a colon.

Maybe in the future someday they might be able to grow a colon from your own stem cells. But, if you have the genetics for IBD, what would prevent your body from trashing the new colon?

Jan

Absolutely not (even if it could be done). I had this surgery to be free of illness and drugs. Not easy living life with a transplant organ in you.

This is always an interesting topic and I'm happy to discuss it when it comes up, but my answer will always remain unchanged: ABSOLUTELY NOT, for all the reasons others have mentioned here. I recall reading an article some time ago that theorized that even if the transplant itself is successful, there is no guarantee that UC won't recur in the new colon. On that note, even if science could "regenerate" my colon as Jan mentions, I also have a strong suspicion that my body would just set upon it as before. My experience with acute UC was so horrific, I would not want to run even a marginal risk of repeating it.

J-pouches are not perfect and don't come without their own set of problems, but the vast majority of the time I am able to carry on with virtually any activity I choose, I am medication free, and I have what I consider a very good quality of life. I would not trade that for another major surgery, a lifetime of immunosuppressants, risk of recurrence of disease, and the potentially lengthy list of other problems that accompany organ transplants.

I'll pass, thanks.

Ditto....absolutely not. Give me a happy and healthy K pouch for the rest of my days and I will be happy.
Sharon

I agree with all of you ABSOLUTELY NOT

Ditto to all the above!!!

Count me in the NO WAY numbers. I do not have inflammatory bowel disease. It had a colon that was obstructing on an almost daily basis. The emergency colectomy and ileostomy happened when it just packed in and quit working all together. I would not wish that hell on anyone. I love my J-pouch.

Yes

I def would. the way i look at it i started having issues around 17...thats 17 years i had normal movements, normal everything. if i could get a new colon grown from my own stem cells and it takes 17 years to trash that one too i would do it in a heartbeat. If they are not sure how long the new colon would last we would have to talk about it more but i would probably do it.

Something to consider:

Getting a colon transplant is not like going back to when you did not have IBD and a well functioning colon. Once the disease is triggered, it is there. Like diabetes (also autoimmune): even if you are controlled with diet, you are still diabetic.

So, putting a pristine colon into a person with their IBD genes "turned on" may not give you the years you'd hope for. Not without lifelong immune supressants. Still, never say never I guess. I just assume that there are more important issues they are working on.

Jan

Assuming that the chance of UC recurring in a transplanted colon is the same or higher as pouchitis developing in a J Pouch, you would be trading down rather than up in diseases, and incurring pain and medical expense of surgery to boot. I traded UC for pouchitis which is a trade up in diseases. Not sure I understand the strategy in possibly trading down, especially since part of the reason I had the colon removed was the cancer risk from dysplasia - by transplanting I would basically invite cancer back into my body. I don't get it.

one can only hope that they map the IBD genes and can then "turn them off" then give you a colon.

If they figured out how to turn off IBD genes they would not need the transplants, because then the colon would heal. Those of us without a colon would just be "casualties of war," so to speak. Again, not a life sustaining organ to risk additional surgery for.

But, learning how to regulate IBD genes and other autoimmune genes would be monumental, even for us who lost our colons! This would improve pouch function, reduce the main complication of the j-pouch: pouchitis, and reduce the autoimmune related diseases like arthritis and liver disease.

Jan

Okay, so what if I had an identical twin brother (I do) who does not have colitis, perfectly normal -- what if he donated 1/3 of his colon to me, since he's so nice?

quote:

what if he donated 1/3 of his colon to me, since he's so nice?

Is one third of a colon enough colon to do the job? Would you need at least half? If he is a twin I say split it 50/50, just like you shared your mother's womb 50/50.

An identical twin has identical genes. He may not have IBD (yet), but he and his colon have the same genetic blueprint. But even if it was a regular sibling, you'd be putting the organ into someone with IBD.

Jan

By the time they develop the science to turn off my IBD genes, I'm going to assume they have the science to grow me a new colon and sphincter from my own stem cells (they have already been doing this with a variety of organs in the lab, for years!) In that case, assuming my insurance will cover it, I'm totally going for it!

Even if they couldn't turn off the IBD gene, if they could grow me a new from my stem cells sphincter, I just might take it, because it would likely be a "trade up" as indicated, but a new colon,that's just going to get sick and need drugs and eventually need to be pouched and then eventually get chronic pouchitis? I think I'm only taking my new made from my own stem cells colon in the no IBD gene turned off scenario once I hit the end of the road of the chronic pouchitis treatment train I'm on and would be facing an ostomy. If when drugs and biologis and any new drugs fail my pouch, then I'd consider it, because maybe I get a little healthy colon, then a few more years of using drugs to treat the new colon and then a few more years of healthy pouch, and hen drugs to treat the new and eventual poucchitus, and by then I have bought myself some more time, and maybe there is a new option to help me avoid an ostomy. And/or by then I am too old to care

Straight up colon transplant from a donor in my current situation is not helpful to me.