What are the key points of postoperative care for rectal cancer? What should be done in the follow-up examination for rectal cancer?

If the symptoms of rectal cancer are more obvious, surgery is often chosen for treatment, but surgery is not a permanent solution and may cause cancer recurrence and affect the health of the gastrointestinal system. Some people pay great attention to the recovery of the rectum after surgery, so they go to the hospital for a follow-up examination to analyze the health status of their body. What are the follow-up examinations for rectal cancer? What are the postoperative care methods for rectal cancer?

What are the items in the follow-up examination for rectal cancer?

Rectal cancer review items, commonly include the following:

1. Physical examination: patients with rectal cancer need to undergo digital rectal examination to determine whether the surgical interface has grown well and whether there is a tumor;

2. Draw blood to check tumor markers such as carcinoembryonic antigen and CA199;

3. Imaging examination: the doctor will choose CT, MRI or B-ultrasound to check for distant metastasis according to the situation. In addition, the follow-up examination should be carried out regularly, usually once every three months in the first three years, once every six months from three to five years, and once a year after five years.

Is chemotherapy necessary after rectal cancer surgery?

After rectal cancer surgery, chemotherapy is usually determined based on the stage. Patients usually receive preoperative neoadjuvant therapy. From a staging perspective, most patients with stage II and III rectal cancer require preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery and then adjuvant chemotherapy. Stage I rectal cancer does not require chemotherapy or neoadjuvant therapy. If the patient's tumor is close to the anus, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy can be performed first to shrink or eliminate the tumor and save the patient's anus. Local excision can also be used to save the patient's anus.

What is the postoperative care method for rectal cancer?

Due to the complex complications of rectal cancer surgery, there is a lot of corresponding postoperative care. Postoperative care before discharge includes: 1. Wound infection care; 2. Drainage tube care, the drainage tube must be kept unobstructed; 3. Observe whether there is anything other than feces in the drainage tube to avoid infection caused by poor stoma care, causing anastomotic collapse and retraction. The care of patients after discharge is mainly education. Patients will have tenesmus and need local anal care education.

The above content is the rectal cancer reexamination method and postoperative care method introduced by Dr. Chen Gong. If you want to get treatment quickly, you can listen to the doctor's instructions first and use effective methods to achieve the purpose of treatment. And after the operation, you should strengthen the care, protect the hygiene of the wound, and reduce the impact of the outside world on the wound.