John Nicholls (surgeon)

Ralph John Nicholls, FRCS (Eng), EBSQ is a retired British colorectal surgeon, Emeritus Consultant Surgeon at St Mark's Hospital London and Professor of Colorectal Surgery, Imperial College London.[1]

R. John Nicholls is best known for his work in the development of ileal pouch surgery. With the advancement of ileal-anal pouch surgery, selected patients with ulcerative colitis and familial adenomatous polyposis were successfully relieved of the disease through removing the colon and rectum, but in contrast to the conventional operation of a total proctocolectomy used at the time, ileal pouch-anal anastomosis surgery also called reconstructive procotocolectomy added the optional choice for the person to avoid the need for a stoma and external appliance bag by internally holding stool in a pouch made from ileum (small bowel) that connects to the anus and restores traditional anal evacuation.[medical citation needed]

The drive behind creating and developing ileo-anal pouch surgery was to improve the quality of life for select patients who were medically suitable to undergo the procedure. The pouch operation with anal anastomosis was designed to be the patient's choice between life with an ileostomy or they could choose an elective/optional pouch reconstruction after the colon and rectum needed to be removed due to disease.[2] Unlike the Kock pouch procedure by Finnish surgeon Nils Koch first reported in Sweden in 1969 which is a continent ileostomy, the ileo-anal pouch was an advancement in pouch surgery because it allowed for the ileum pouch to be emptied by traditional anal evacuation.[3][4] [5]

  1. ^ "John Nicholls | European Society of Coloproctology". Escp.eu.com. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  2. ^ Parks, A. G.; Nicholls, R. J. (1978). "Proctocolectomy without ileostomy for ulcerative colitis". British Medical Journal. 2 (6130): 85–88. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.6130.85. PMC 1605901. PMID 667572.
  3. ^ Rudd, W. W. (1976). "The Kock Pouch: A Continent Ileostomy with No Appliance". Canadian Family Physician. 22: 57–59. PMC 2378183. PMID 21308013.
  4. ^ Nessar, G.; Wu, J. S. (2012). "Evolution of continent ileostomy". World Journal of Gastroenterology. 18 (27): 3479–3482. doi:10.3748/wjg.v18.i27.3479. PMC 3400848. PMID 22826611.
  5. ^ Myrelid, Pär; Block, Mattias, eds. (2019). The Kock Pouch. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95591-9. ISBN 978-3-319-95590-2. S2CID 206716071.[page needed]