Ostomy complications, grouped: what a 2026 clinical review lists — and why it points to your care team
A 2026 clinical review catalogues the known ostomy complications into earlier and later ones. It's a map of what exists, not a checklist for self-diagnosis — and that distinction matters.
An ostomy is surgery that brings part of the bowel to an opening on the body — the stoma. If it's the small intestine, that's an ileostomy; if it's the colon, a colostomy [1]. Like any surgery, it comes with a set of things that can go differently than planned, and a 2026 clinical review set out to map them in one place.
The review sorts ostomy complications into two broad groups. Earlier ones include high output, stoma necrosis, the stoma drawing inward (retraction), and skin irritation around it. Later ones include a parastomal hernia, the stoma protruding (prolapse), narrowing (stenosis), and bleeding [2]. Seeing them grouped like this is genuinely useful — it shows that "a problem with the stoma" is not one thing but a range, with very different stakes.
That range is the actual point of this piece. The same review is clear that some of these — stoma necrosis, a parastomal hernia where bowel becomes trapped, an obstruction — can be surgical emergencies, and it was written to help emergency clinicians recognise and act on them [3]. Notice what that means: judging which complication is minor and which is urgent is a clinical call, made by people trained to make it. A list of names is not a triage tool, and this article is not one either.
So the honest takeaway is deliberately not a checklist. It's the opposite: ostomy complications are real, they vary enormously in seriousness, and the reliable move when something seems off is to get it looked at rather than to rank it yourself. Your stoma care team knows your stoma and your history — if something changes or worries you, that is exactly the conversation to have, and sooner rather than later. They are the right people to tell you what it is.