More information about fistula?

Stay away from stagnant water or river mouths that may be used as a fishing destination that may contain fistula. The areas like the east coast have had contamination from the down flow of manure from pig and cow farms that leak waste into the water causing dangerous concentrations of this bacteria. I can't say exactly where on the east coast but I think it was in the Carolinas. Fishermen became very ill and were mentally challenged from the over-exposure of fistula. This can make you sick. It will make you feel like things are crawling under your skin and make you lose memories. If you are a fisherman, the clues are dead fish with blisters or sores all over them, much like the ones you will develop with prolonged exposure. This is a very serious bacteria that is in need of immediate attention. I watched a documentary that claimed that it could be cured by a simple statin (cholesterol) if caught early enough. It eats fish blood but will thrive readily on human blood as it was tested on other types of blood. If you see a warning stay out of the water. If you enter the water you will be putting yourself at risk for serious illness. The Discovery Channel web site can link you to the documentary.

Connects two separate things that aren't supposed to be connected.
Such as your bladder to your intestine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fistula

I don't know what you need, but a fistula is a connecting tract. Be more specific please.

A fistula is like a little tunnel that forms...you can have them anywhere...usually if you have an abscess somewhere and the abscess breaks but has no skin surface lets say...the infection will burrow a tunnel trying to reach the skin surface to release the pressure. Fistulas aren't good as they just trap the bacteria there and you have to get to the underlying cause (abscess or infection) and I'm not really sure if the fistula just collapses and closes after that or what.

For example my BIL got several fistulas in his rectum (of all places) because he's always had a hard time passing stool...so it actually ripped it and created an absess which made several fistulas inside. Don't ask what they did to fix them!!!!

But maybe you are talking about surgically created fistulas--they are a surgically created passage that connects one organ to another for example.

it is a pus filled sac sign of infection such as near the gum line at a tooth like a big blister

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fistula#Typ...

When most people just say "fistula", they mean "fisutla in ano" a condition where there is a small draining hole next to the anus. Fistula in ano is caused by a small infection that builds up beside the anus and then drains both into the rectum and out to the skin. After this, it tends to stay open, or to open and close repeatedly over time. Unless there are underlying health problems, it's easily treatable, but the specifics of its treatment are dependent on the specifics of its anatomy (whether or not it wraps around the sphincter muscles).

Many other kinds of fistulas exist. The next most common kind is called an "enterocutaneous fistula" which is most often related to complications of surgery. An enterocutaneous fistula is where some portion of the gut is perforated and leaking to the surface of the body. Other kinds of fistulas that are relatively common are rectovaginal (rectum leaking through the back wall of the vagina), colovessical (sigmoid colon leaking into the urinary bladder as a result of chronic infection) and entero-enteric (one loop of intestine stuck together with another - usually because of an inflammatory bowel disease such as crohn's).

When evaluating a fistula, one has to consider what made it happen, and what might be stopping it from healing spontaneously. Many can heal by themselves. Medical students are taught to remember those things that promote stable fistula by knowing the "F.R.I.E.N.D.s of the fistula".

F - foriegn body: anything like a stitch or a piece of material that keeps the hole open.

R - radiation: after radiation therapy for cancer, tissue will not heal closed and if a fistula opens up, it will tend to stay there.

I - infection: chronic bacteria prohibit healing

E - epithelialization: "skinning over", once the hole has a stable lining of skin, it won't close.

N - neoplasm: cancer ... its never going to heal.

D - distal obstruction: if the gut is blocked closed downstream, then all the pressure comes out the fistula and it will never seal.

There's a lot to know about fistulas. If you have specific questions, I encourage you to ask.