Why Its Important and How to Release It

Why focus onpassing gasafter surgery?

POI means your intestines are not moving food through your body properly.

There is a risk of POI following abdominal surgery and some other types of surgeries.

After surgery, you may be told to let your nurse know if you pass gas.

Importance of Gas After Surgery

You may haveanesthesiato put you to sleep during surgery.

When this slowdown happens, it’s called a delay in gastric motility or POI.

A POI means that it takes your intestines longer to recover from anesthesia than the rest of you.

The slowdown can be mild, or it can be severe enough to need medical treatment.

The ability to pass gas is a clear sign that your digestive system is waking up.

You may have had abowel preparationto clean the stool out of your body before surgery.

If so, it may be several days before you have a bowel movement.

Gas may pass long before a stool does, showing that your bowels are working well.

The staff doesnt want to send you home with a POI that could become serious.

That’s the reason it’s important to let them know when you pass gas.

Symptoms

A delay in gastric motility is usually brief.

POIs may be resulting from different factors in different people.

Or you may have had surgery directly on your intestines.

If your intestines were handled, your body’s immune system may be triggered.

White blood cells and other types of cells may rush to the area, causing a slowdown.

Disruption to the Nervous System

Another theory involves your nervous system.

Your nervous system has two “departments.”

Thesympathetic nervous system(SNS) normally makes your intestines move less.

The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) makes your intestines move more.

After surgery, your SNS may have more control for a short time.

Opioid medications can causeconstipation after surgery.

Prevention

Preventing a POI is not always possible, but there are ways to lower the risk.

Less-invasive surgeries also have a lower risk of POI.

Two simple strategies to prevent a POI may be chewing gum and drinking coffee after surgery.

Summary

Passing gas after surgery is important.

A post-operative ileus or POI happens when there’s a slowdown in your body’s ability to digest food.

It could be due to changes in your nervous system or the after-effects of having your intestines handled.

A POI could even happen because of the medications you’re taking.

To lower your risk, maintain a healthy diet, and try chewing gum or walking after surgery.

Buchanan L, Tuma F.Postoperative ileus.

StatPearls Publishing; 2023.

Sanfilippo F, Spoletini G.Perspectives on the importance of postoperative ileus.Curr Med Res Opin.

Journal of Visceral Surgery.

2015 Jun;34(3):367-76. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2015.01.016