Ask the Doctor: common side effects of colorectal cancer surgery
Deborah Nagle, M.D.
This month, an Ask the Doctor question comes from the wife of a cancer survivor who is concerned about her husband’s post-surgery symptoms. As part of our Ask the Doctor program, readers send questions related to health, wellness, colon cancer prevention, screening or treatment. Our panel of experts responds. This month, Dr. Deborah Nagle, M.D., Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard University answers a question about the common side effects of colorectal cancer surgery.
Get Your Rear in Gear reader: My husband had a lower anterior resection for stage II rectal cancer 3 years ago, and since the surgery the can not urinate on his own. He has a neurogenic bladder and needs to self catherize 5X’s a day. Is this a common risk of the surgery?
Dr. Nagle: Neurogenic bladder is an uncommon, but recognized complication, after pelvic surgery with or without radiation. Many patients, especially men who have enlarged prostate, will experience temporary urinary hesitancy or retention (inability to void). For most patients, this will resolve within a few days or weeks of surgery. Unfortunately, a very small number of patients, both men and women, will have long-term urinary dysfunction.
