[tri-med] Re: Sherry's thanks

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin and Sherry Upson"
> >What is malrotation? How
> > is it treated?
> As for malrotation, I believe it is any abnormal twisting of the
intestines.

You did excellently Sherry,

All I could add is a little more technical info on malrotation.

When a baby is forming in utero it starts out as a tube. Actually there are
three tubes and to imagine it, imagine three tubes inside each other.

Each of these layers or tubes forms different systems within the body. One
of those tubes forms the internal organs.

To form the organs this tube comes outside the body, the organs are formed
and then at a set stage of development the tube rotates counter clockwise
(thats from memory, could be the other way around) back into the other
tubes, which have been busy forming the nervous system, skin, skeleton etc.

Sometimes, particularly with our kids, instead of rotating back in counter
clockwse, this tube goes in clockwise. (malrotation), maybe it will start
going in the right way and then change direction (partial malrotation) and
sometimes it doesn't go back in completely (omphalocele)

A malrotated gut (or partial malrotated gut) is in itself not a problem -
its just that everything is on the wrong side and not where people expect it
to be. (eg appendix on the left instead of the right). Sometimes though it
does become a problem if the bowel gets kinked or twisted in the process.
That can potentially cause a total blockage, which can rapidly escalate into
a major life threatening condition. (there is a reason to nature's way of
doing things)

To correct a malrotation they do what is called a LADDS procedure (if I
remember correctly) - in short they pull everything out and then try very
hard to put it all back together the way nature intended. Unfortunately man
is not as good as God or Nature (depending on who you believe in) and they
can never achieve it perfectly. Consequently they often remove the appendix
at the same time because it nearly always it ends up in the wrong spot, and
should they ever suffer appendicitis it can be misleading..

Alex had a partial malrotation - the lower part of his bowel was OK. But
when they did a lower GI they say that there were abnormal kinks and turns
just past the stomach. There was a high possibility that these could occlude
totally at some stage in the future, and may have been intermittently
kinking up until then. He had after all had already had a strangulated bowel
at the age of 4 weeks. (his bowel tracked into his scrotum and got twisted -
hydroceles) So they went in and straightened out the kinks and stitched the
bowel so it couldn't re-kink. No drama for Alex and they did it at the same
time as they did his fundoplication and g-tube.

Thats just a little more of a technical explanation - still incredibly
simplified!!!!

I have not lost my mind - it's backed up on disk somewhere.
-- Unknown

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (9 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
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