A. Irrigation is a procedure that some colostomates can use to cleanse their colon, making it unnecessary to wear an appliance. Only a select group of people are able to irrigate. You must have either a sigmoid or an end colostomy so that your stools are less frequent and more firm. Although I have seen a very motivated person with a transverse colostomy irrigate successfully, this is not usually recommended. If you are a person who has a large bowel movement once or twice daily through your stoma on a regular basis, you may be an excellent candidate to irrigate.
Irrigation takes a lot of motivation and patience to work.
You will need to spend approximately an hour every day at the same time training your bowels to irrigate. It may take days to weeks before you finally see results and are able to wear a stoma cap instead of your pouch. Some disease processes can cause weaknesses or fistulas in the bowel, making irrigation dangerous. These conditions include Crohn's disease, Diverticulitis, and recurrent cancer. Male ostomates who suffer painful collisions between the pouch tail clip and key organs, should try angling the pouch toward a pants leg instead of pointing it straight down.