|
DAN is seeking information from divers about their personal experiences in diving after a colostomy or ileostomy. To find out more, read on.
Can you dive after a colostomy or ilesostomy? An important question for the DAN medical team, here's the quick answer: “Ostomy procedures do not disqualify someone from beginning or continuing recreational diving.”
Read: As long as you’re healthy, you can dive.
There are not many cases the DAN medical team can specifically cite, however. Because of this, we need to use the information from the cases we do know about as well as asking divers what their practical experiences have shown.
What do these procedures entail?
Briefly, the procedures of colostomy and ileostomy involve large- or small-bowel surgery, respectively, resulting in an alternative opening (called a stoma) in the abdomen. The stoma helps discharge the contents of the bowel after parts of the intestines have been removed. A stoma collection bag (often termed an 'appliance') is worn over the site.
Stomas can be temporary or permanent, differentiated by the type of illness or injury and the amount of bowel removed. Conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease — a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract — and other irritable bowel conditions or abdominal trauma may require an ostomy procedure.
How they affect your diving
An important restriction after such a procedure, however, is an internal continent pouch (called a Koch pouch) made from a small section of bowel and constructed as a reservoir for waste. This internal pouch has its drawbacks: It can trap bowel gas, and its expansion during decompression could result in tissue barotrauma.
What can you expect in the way of medical advice?
Medical texts say “yes” to diving and suggest obtaining a new ostomy appliance prior to the dive. Most advice ends there. Using a new bag is good advice, however, because maintaining the appliance seal on the abdomen is the most important challenge for diving with a stoma.
Ostomy divers may be a small part of the dive community, but they’re out there and need more definitive answers. DAN’s goal is to provide practical information and guidance from successful ostomy divers. This helps new divers as well as those who have undergone a change in their health.
Share your information
If you are a diver with an ostomy, DAN and other divers could use your assistance. We are collecting information about your successful dives with an ostomy. In the near future, we’d like to create such a resource for divers on the DAN website.
To contribute information to this effort, please send an email to medic@DiversAlertNetwork.org. Include your type of ostomy, and tell DAN about your successful diving practices.
This embodies the DAN spirit of “Divers Helping Divers.®” Your information will be kept confidential. Please contribute if you can.
|