Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) & Life with a Stoma
plainly everything…
Stigma After Stoma Surgery: What a 2026 Evidence Review Found About Screening and Support
A 2026 literature review in Frontiers in Oncology identified approaches to detecting felt stigma in colorectal cancer patients with stomas and summarised evidence on which interventions provide meaningful support.
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The Gut-Brain Axis in IBD: What a 2026 Systematic Review of 1,040 Patients Found About Microbiota and Mood
A systematic review published in Frontiers in Microbiology in June 2026 analysed ten studies involving 1,040 IBD patients and found that anxiety and depressive symptoms were associated with reduced gut microbial diversity and enrichment of pro-inflammatory bacterial taxa, with authors concluding the relationship may be bidirectional.
Beyond the Bowel: What a 2025 Cochrane Review Found About Psychological Interventions in IBD
A 2025 Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis by Tiles-Sar and colleagues examined the randomised trial evidence for psychological interventions in inflammatory bowel disease, assessing whether approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness, and stress management affect disease activity, quality of life, and psychological wellbeing.
Learning to Live With IBD: What a Cochrane Review Found About Patient Education Programs
A 2023 Cochrane systematic review examined the trial evidence for structured patient education interventions in inflammatory bowel disease, assessing whether programmes delivered by nurses, clinicians, or digital tools affect disease activity, quality of life, and patients' ability to manage their own condition.
Telehealth for IBD: What a Cochrane Review Found About Remote Care
A Cochrane systematic review evaluated whether digital and remote care tools, including apps, telephone follow-up, and web-based monitoring platforms, change outcomes for people living with inflammatory bowel disease. Here is what the evidence found, and why certainty still matters.
Urostomy Care: What a 2026 Evidence Synthesis Means for Patients
A June 2026 study in BMC Nursing used a systematic review of evidence and a modified Delphi consensus process with nursing specialists to identify and validate the core components of nursing care for adult patients living with a urostomy.
Azathioprine and 6-MP for Ulcerative Colitis: A 2025 Cochrane Review on Long-Term Remission
A 2025 Cochrane systematic review synthesises randomised trial evidence on azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine for maintaining remission in ulcerative colitis. These widely used medications have decades of clinical history, but patients often have questions about what the evidence actually shows and what routine monitoring involves.
Practical living
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Ageing With an Ostomy: Six Domains the Research Says Matter Most for Home Self-Management
A 2026 evidence summary published in Frontiers in Medicine reviewed 15 high-quality studies on home self-management for elderly ostomy patients and synthesised 36 evidence-based recommendations across six care domains, from stoma assessment to medication management.
Coming Home With an Ostomy: What the Evidence Says About the Weeks After Discharge
A 2026 best evidence summary published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing reviewed the research on post-discharge follow-up for colorectal cancer patients with a new ostomy, examining which components of structured support in the first weeks at home are backed by published evidence.
What You Drink and IBD Risk: A 2026 Dose-Response Meta-Analysis Advances the Evidence
A 2026 systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis pooled data across multiple studies to map how different beverage types, from coffee and tea to alcohol and sweetened drinks, relate to the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease.
Before Your Stoma Reversal: What a Cochrane Review of 9 Trials Found About Wound Closure and Infection Risk
A 2024 Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of nine randomised controlled trials found that purse-string skin closure during stoma reversal cuts the surgical site infection rate to roughly one-fifth of that seen with conventional linear closure — a finding worth discussing with your surgical team.
High-Output Stoma: Five Evidence-Based Strategies and the Electrolyte Risks That Make Prompt Management Essential
A 2026 systematic review of 15 studies maps five categories of intervention for high-output stomas — and names the electrolyte imbalances that, left unmanaged, can lead to kidney injury and preventable readmission.
What the 2026 AGA hemorrhoid update says — and why not every anal symptom is a hemorrhoid
A new American Gastroenterological Association Clinical Practice Update puts fibre, fluids and not straining first for symptomatic hemorrhoids, reserves procedures and surgery for higher grades — and is a reminder that bleeding from the bottom should be checked, not assumed.
Awareness & community
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Digital Health Tools for Ostomy Patients: What a 2026 Systematic Review Found
A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing evaluated digital health interventions for people living with a stoma, examining their effects on self-care behaviour and health-related quality of life.
After Crohn's Surgery: The Growing Case for Intestinal Ultrasound as a Monitoring Tool
A 2026 international consensus study published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology used the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method to evaluate exactly when intestinal ultrasound is appropriate for detecting postoperative Crohn's disease recurrence, drawing on 21 international experts to produce the first structured guidance on this non-invasive monitoring approach.
Perianal Crohn's Disease Over Twenty Years: What Population-Based Data Reveals About Long-Term Risk
A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled data from population-based cohorts to examine how often perianal complications develop in people with Crohn's disease across a twenty-year follow-up, giving the most rigorous long-term risk picture to date.
Psychological Support for IBD: What a Cochrane Review of 68 Studies Shows About Therapy, Education, and Relaxation
A 2025 Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of 68 randomised trials found that psychotherapy, patient education, and relaxation techniques each produce small but meaningful improvements in quality of life, depression, and anxiety for adults living with inflammatory bowel disease.
Does cannabis help inflammatory bowel disease? What a June 2026 systematic review of THC actually found
Cannabis is one of the most widely used self-treatments among people with IBD, but a new systematic review built to Cochrane standards found that THC-containing cannabis showed no effect on remission or endoscopic healing — only low-certainty signals for bloating and appetite — and concluded that the overall evidence remains inconclusive.
Life after pelvic exenteration: what a 2026 systematic review of 23 studies says about quality of life, body image, and living with a stoma
Pelvic exenteration is one of the most radical operations in gynaecological cancer care, and it usually leaves a person with one or two stomas. A 2026 systematic review brought together 23 studies (1,655 patients) on quality of life afterward. The honest picture: overall quality of life often stabilised or recovered beyond six months, but sexual function, body image — frequently tied to stoma formation — and psychological distress commonly stayed worse. No randomized trials existed and most studies carried a serious risk of bias, so this is a careful synthesis of observational evidence, not proof of cause.