L hemicolectomy secondary to bowel structure?????

[momathoner09, BSN, MSN, APRN]

This is my dx for my patient tom "L. Hemicolectomy secondary to bowel structure" What is a bowel structure?? The patient had a bowel colon resection w/a pre-op dx of colonic stricture and post op dx of the same + liver lesion x2. The actualy procedure was a transverse colon resection. I know what a hemicolectomy is but I can't figure out what her medical dx is. Are they testing her for colon cancer? I am going to feel pretty silly on my first clincial day of this semester if I don't even understand my patients' dx. There was no current history & physical in the chart). Please help if you can and thank you in advance!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I think the word is probably "stricture." This means a narrowing of whatever structure you are discussing. Hope that helps.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

admitting diagnosis is bowel stricture. the final diagnosis probably won't be known until the pathology reports are back. could be either due to a malignancy (cancer) or adhesions. malignancy is more likely if a hemicolectomy was done. i would check the surgical report if it has been transcribed and placed in the chart. a read through of the surgical report will tell you what they found to be causing the bowel stricture. sometimes the surgeons can tell from looking at the open anatomy if there's a malignancy or not. look for a pathology report in the chart as well.