Any surgeons / surgical staff about? What's this that's just come out of me?! (pic-not gross)

[ColitisSucks]

Does anyone that knows about surgeries know what this is? It looks like a tiny staple, but might be a circle that's been crimped?

I had surgery last Nov, a stoma created, and I've been having issues with a pressure sore since June. It's gradually healing now, but today I saw something and poked, and realised it was something inside wanting out! Gave a little tug with tweezers and here it is.

Obviously it's Saturday... Helpful... And I wondered if this is normal - just something not needed anymore now stuff's healed - or if I should be worried something has come adrift?

Also wondering if this is what's been causing the sore?! Or maybe I'm full of the little buggers and this one just found an easy way out!

Thanks to anyone that can reassure my slight uneasyness

It looks like a staple, they are used instead of stitches. The ones in my back were ten times the size that!

That's what I thought - but I definitely had dissolvable stitches round the actual stoma where it joins the skin. Your back staples would have been removed once it was healed, yeah? Or were they used under the skin and left in?

Just slightly worried something that should be joined together isn't anymore?!

Bollocks. Nc fail... Oh well..

My SIL (nurse) removed them with a big staple puller, TBH I didn't feel a thing, just a bit of a tug.

Is it metal? If so, likely a staple.
Unlikely to cause a pressure sore but it staples and sutures unremoved can aggravate the skin (causing redness and irritation) so wouldn't have helped.

Yes, metal.

The pressure sore has been put down to having the stoma bag stuck to my skin - it's shaped to press in to make a good seal and an elastic belt keeps it snug - I'm wondering if it was pressing against this and the combination is what's caused the sore.

Would it be normal for it to be left in? There was nothing like that visible immediately post surgery, and I had nothing removed at all (stitches etc) as they were all dissolvable. Or so I thought!

Thats a clip/staple. Did you have any removed following the surgery? Looks like it got left behind and was imbedded. Just keep an eye on the site for any redness.

Its a bowel or vascular staple. They’re made to be left inside you. Don’t worry you arent coming apart at the seams.

No they don't get left in, but on some occasions skin can grow over them so you can't see them to remove them.

You'd be surprised at how many bits get left inside patients after surgery! It looks like a 'B' staple , I would let your surgeon know.

Sodding hell, I'm crap at this NC thing

@FanniesFlaps thanks, is it OK that it's decided to work its way out? Not something I should worry about unduly?

And thanks everyone else too - I don't think I was very clear, I had no staples at all anywhere post surgery as far as I was aware. It was laproscopic and everything was just glued except the actual stoma which had dissolvable stitches only.

At no point did I have any stitches or staples removed, it's not a case of one being missed, it's come from something it was securing inside me - hence being a bit worried something might now be unstuck that shouldn't be

Do you have a stoma nurse , if so I’d email her/ him the photo just to put your mind at rest .

Internal staples are designed to be left so it's possible it's one of those- I have internal staples after brain surgery and had one fall out it was slightly distressing!

@Floralnomad yes, I do, but they are only there m-f. Just wanted to check if I should speak to someone before then really!

Oof - yeah, I can imagine that was a worry! I guess they must work out on their own sometimes?!

It's an internal staple, assume you still have your rectum so the rectal stump is normally stapled to the inside of the abdominal wall. It's quite common for them to come out.

If you're using a convex bag then the pressure sore could be from that, they do cause skin breakdown in some people, but it could just be the staple aggravating things on the way out.

Fellow ex UC person with a permanent stoma!

Oh ignore my replies, I thought you'd had staples at the site after your op. 🤦‍♀️.

To form the actual conduit, staples are used. They come in a kind of strip so any that go past the end of the tissue being stapled together will just fall off the end. They weren’t attached to anything. Then they remove the instrument and add another ‘cassette’ of staples ready for the next section.
When the stoma is brought through they skin they just use sutures which gradually dissolve.

Thanks everyone - nothing to worry about then.

My mum also had these staples come out of her stoma, surgeon said it was nothing to worry about.

Thanks, that's good to know

Very often, when they’re dividing the bowel below the level of the stoma during surgery (especially laparoscopically) they use a surgical stapler which has up to 6 rows of miniature staples to enable the surgeon to separate the 2 parts of the bowel/stomach etc. they are designed to remain in situ but, occasionally, one or two can come loose if they’re particularly close to the division line.

I had polyps removed a few years ago, my surgeon assured me these tiny clips would pass through. I get an annual MRI for another condition and he said it would be safe as they'd pass before the MRI date. so I imagine it depends very much on why they were used in the first play as to whether they are intended to stay in place or pass through.