Being admitted to the transplant centre

You will be told when to stop eating and drinking. It’s very important that your stomach is empty before the operation. Having an empty stomach helps reduce the risk of vomiting that might cause damage to your lungs when you are asleep.

You’ll meet several nurses and doctors and will be assessed to see whether you are still fit enough for the transplant. If you have had any health problems since you were last reviewed, please tell the team.

Blood tests will be taken, and your pulse, blood pressure and temperature will be checked. You may need other tests as well, for example a heart tracing (electrocardiogram – ECG) or chest X-ray.

The anaesthetist will check that you’re fit enough for a general anaesthetic. A general anaesthetic means that you will be completely asleep during the operation. The anaesthetist will tell you about the drips and tubes that you will need, and the benefits and risks of these. They’ll also tell you how your pain will be controlled after the operation. If you’ve had any problems with anaesthetics before, it’s important that you tell them. If members of your family have had serious reactions to anaesthetics, please tell your anaesthetist.

If the transplant team think that you may now not be fit enough for a bowel transplant operation, they will discuss this with you.

Your transplant team will speak to you in detail about the benefits and risks of having a bowel transplant. The transplant team will be able to tell you some medical information about your deceased donor, including possible health risks. Every donor and their organs are different. Your transplant team will discuss this with you.

> Learn how the health of your donor can affect the donated bowel

The surgical team will confirm the information that has previously been given about on how and where the incisions (cuts) will be made.

> Learn more about bowel transplant surgery

If your blood or other tests detect that you have a new, serious health problem, the transplant may be too risky to do.

Sometimes the tests can raise concerns about cancer or serious infection in the donor that weren’t known about at the time that the bowel offer was accepted.

Surgeons inspect the bowel and other organs in the donor to check that they are safe enough to use. Sometimes the bowel cannot be used.

This may because the quality is not felt to be good enough to transplant. The bowel also needs to be the right size for you. Sometimes a bowel can be too big for the patient meaning the surgery cannot go ahead.

Sometimes an intensive care bed is no longer available due to an emergency admission.
Your transplant team will be doing everything they can to get your bowel transplant done, but sometimes this is not possible. You will be told if there is a problem and what happens next.