Pelvic and abdominal radiotherapy, take it easy!

  Our digestive tract is a muscular tube surrounded by smooth muscles. The normal muscle contraction of the gastrointestinal tract, which can transmit the food in the lumen to the distal end, is called intestinal peristalsis. The peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract is like a conveyor belt that runs automatically to transfer the food and drinks we take in, together with the various digestive juices secreted by ourselves, to the distal end of the digestive tract continuously. Among them, radiation therapy for tumors is quite popular among many colleagues and patients because of the absence of external trauma and the exact efficacy. However, this treatment is also a double-edged sword to the body, although the radioactive damage is invisible and invisible for a while, it is not generally evil to settle accounts after the autumn. It’s not a good idea to call people to regret. The lower abdomen and pelvis are often the irradiation sites for radiation therapy treatment of rectal cancer and gynecological tumors, and the most important small intestine of the gastrointestinal tract is also intertwined here. In addition to acute radiation enteritis such as intestinal bleeding and diarrhea, radiation exposure to the intestinal canal can also cause occlusion of blood vessels in the irradiated intestinal wall, atrophy and degeneration of the muscles of the intestinal wall, and finally transformation into a whitish and stiff scar that loses its normal peristaltic ability.  This intestinal wall fibrosis is a chronic and progressive process that cannot be reversed. Normal gastrointestinal transmission is like a highway, through which food can pass quickly. However, when the food flows through the diseased intestinal tube, it lacks the power to move forward and can only rely on the pressure generated by the proximal normal intestinal tube to push it through like toothpaste. It is like a herd of old cows wandering slowly in the road, how not to happen a big traffic jam intestinal obstruction it. At present, there is no good way to treat this disease, the only way is to remove the diseased intestine, to remove the waste intestine, so that the normal operation of the intestinal tube connected together. However, our intestinal canal is coiled in the pelvic and abdominal cavity, and the near and far segments may suffer during irradiation. A wide range of intestinal tubes are out of order and the surgeon is told to cut which segment to keep.  Postoperative intestinal adhesions are scarring that forms after the surgical wound heals and binds the intestinal tubes together, making the forward movement of the intestinal contents obstructed, while the intestinal wall itself is not much of a problem.  Once the adhesions that bind the intestine are released, the intestine can run smoothly and the patient’s pain may be relieved. Radiation enteropathy, on the other hand, is like a paralyzed patient, and even if there are adhesions, loosening them will not help. After listening to my explanation and introduction, they understood the difficulty of treating chronic radiation enteropathy and regretted that they were in this desperate situation because they lacked knowledge and received radiotherapy easily to reduce the probability of tumor recurrence. I would like to cry out here that radiation enteropathy is a very painful and incurable disease, which is no less harmful than cancer. If it is not that urgent indication for treatment, pelvic and abdominal radiotherapy, patients and colleagues, you must take it easy.