Stoma (medicine)

In anatomy, a stoma (plural stomata ˈstoʊmətə or stomas) is any opening in the body. For example, a mouth, a nose, and an anus are natural stomata. Any hollow organ can be manipulated into an artificial stoma as necessary. This includes the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, ileum, colon, pleural cavity, ureters, urinary bladder, and renal pelvis. Such a stoma may be permanent or temporary. Surgical procedures that involve the creation of an artificial stoma have names that typically end with the suffix "-ostomy", and the same names are also often used to refer to the stoma thus created. For example, the word "colostomy" often refers either to an artificial anus or the procedure that creates one. Accordingly, it is not unusual for a stoma to be called an ostomy (plural ostomies), as is the norm in wound, ostomy, and continence nursing. Stomata are created in particular in surgical procedures involving the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) or gastrointestinal system (GIS). The GIT begins at the mouth or oral cavity and continues until its termination, which is the anus. Examples of gastrointestinal stomata include: Esophagostomy Gastrostomy (also see percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) Cholecystostomy Choledochostomy Enteric: Cecostomy Colostomy Duodenostomy Ileostomy Jejunostomy Appendicostomy (see also continence appendicostomy) One well-known form of an artificial stoma is a colostomy, which is a surgically created opening in the large intestine that allows the removal of feces out of the body, bypassing the rectum, to drain into a pouch or other collection device. This surgical procedure is invoked usually as a result of and solution to disease in the GIT. The procedure involves bisecting this tube, usually between the later stage of the small intestine (ileum) and the large intestine or colon, hence colostomy, and exiting it from the body in the abdominal region. The point of exiting is what is known as the stoma.