What are the symptoms of rectal lesions?

The rectum is an important part of the human body. Once a lesion occurs, various adverse symptoms will appear. The most common ones are changes in bowel habits and characteristics, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, blood in the stool, anemia, etc. If these symptoms are not treated in time, more serious phenomena will occur, such as colon obstruction, intestinal perforation, etc. These two situations are very likely to be life-threatening.

1. Changes in bowel habits and characteristics

Patients with rectal cancer may have more frequent bowel movements, but not much stool each time, or even no stool at all. They only excrete some mucus and blood, and have a feeling of incomplete bowel movements.

2. Abdominal distension and pain

This is caused by intestinal dysfunction or intestinal obstruction. The pain is mostly concentrated in the middle and lower abdomen, mostly dull pain or bloating, and tends to gradually worsen.

3. Blood in the stool

Because the lesion is close to the anus, the blood is mostly bright red or dark red, and the blood is often separated from the stool. Only when the amount of bleeding is heavy, the stool will appear brown and jam-like. Many patients with right-sided colon cancer have visible blood in their stools. This is also an early symptom of colorectal cancer.

4. Anemia

When long-term chronic blood loss exceeds the body's hematopoietic compensatory function, the patient may develop anemia, an early symptom of colorectal cancer. Tumor obstruction: When the tumor grows to a considerable size or infiltrates the intestinal wall muscle layer, it can cause intestinal stenosis, shrinkage of the intestinal cavity, and obstruction of the passage of intestinal contents.

5. Colon obstruction

It is one of the late complications of rectal cancer and can occur suddenly or gradually. It is mostly caused by tumor proliferation blocking the intestinal cavity or intestinal narrowing, or it can be caused by acute inflammation, congestion, edema, bleeding, etc. at the tumor site.

6. Intestinal perforation

There are two types of rectal cancer complicated by perforation: perforation occurs locally in the tumor; proximal colon perforation is a complication of tumor obstruction. After perforation occurs, clinical manifestations may include diffuse peritonitis, localized peritonitis, or local abscess formation. Diffuse peritonitis is often accompanied by toxic shock and has a very high mortality rate.