Small Bowel Resection

Small Bowel Resection Overview

Our dedicated IBD experts and renowned colorectal surgeons offer a broad range of treatments to help relieve symptoms and improve your quality of life. If these treatments aren't successful, you may need to have the diseased portion of your intestines surgically removed (small bowel resection).

It's important to know that resection is a common treatment for Crohn's disease. As one of the largest inflammatory bowel disease programs in Northern California, our experts draw from their experience in researching the disease and caring for hundreds of patients every year to determine when surgery is right for you:

• Surgery too early can sacrifice more bowel tissue than necessary
• Surgery too late can put you at higher risk of complications

As experts in minimally invasive colorectal surgery, we perform your small bowel resection procedures laparoscopically. During a laparoscopic procedure we make a series of small incisions and use special tools to perform your procedure as opposed to making a large incision, which is typically necessary for open procedures. In fact, our surgeons were among the first in the country to perform single incision laparoscopic procedures for inflammatory bowel disease.

Depending on how much of your bowel we remove, you may need additional procedures, such as ileal J-pouch surgery or Kock pouch ileostomy, to help you eliminate stool. However, you can still expect to go back to your favorite activities after surgery.