A small bowel resection is a surgical procedure which involves the removal of part of the small intestine.
Commonly, a small bowel resection is indicated for:
- Crohn’s disease
- Bowel ischaemia
- Bowel obstruction
- Perforated bowel
- Severe gastrointestinal bleeding
- Bowel cancer
- Benign tumours
- Precancerous polyps
The two surgical techniques for a small bowel resection include:
- Open surgery – where an incision is made through the skin and abdominal wall to remove the affected section of small intestine
- Laparoscopic surgery – a less invasive procedure that uses three to four small incisions to access the small intestine