After a pelvic exenteration, your healthcare team will arrange for you to have regular appointments at the hospital. This is so they can continue to provide the right care and support.
There is no standard follow-up after pelvic exenteration, but we hope this information gives you a rough idea of what might happen.
On this page:
- Treatment summary >
- Home visits >
- Checking the treatment was successful >
- Check-up appointments >
- Getting support >
In this section:
- About pelvic exenteration >
- Having a pelvic exenteration >
- Risks and side effects of pelvic exenteration >
Treatment summary
Once your pelvic exenteration is done, you should be given a treatment summary. This is a document by your healthcare team that explains:
- what treatments you have had
- any side effects you might have
- signs and symptoms to look out for
- a plan that has been made for your long-term care and support.
This treatment summary should also be sent to your GP surgery, so they know how to support you too. You might want to check that the hospital have sent it to them.
Home visits
Once you are home, your stoma nurse or CNS may call you to make sure you are feeling well and not having any problems. They may arrange to visit you at home. This is to make sure you are coping well and to check your stoma.
You shouldn’t wait for a home visit to ask questions or tell your healthcare team about any worries. You should have a contact number for your stoma nurse or CNS, so give them a call if you have any problems.
Checking the treatment was successful
After a pelvic exenteration, the cancer and other areas that were removed will be sent to a laboratory. A specialist called a histopathologist will look at it under a microscope. They will check whether:
- all the cancer has been removed
- there are clear margins .
Having clear margins this means there is an edge around the cancer that is ‘clear’ – there are no cancer cells there. The size of the margins that your healthcare team is happy with may vary. Usually, clear margins are 2mm or more.
If you don’t have clear margins, you may need further treatment. This could be more surgery or a targeted therapy drug called Avastin (bevacizumab). It is important to discuss the risks and benefit of any treatments with your healthcare team.
Check-up appointments
You should have a first check-up appointment between 2 to 4 weeks after you have left the hospital. This appointment will happen at the hospital. At the check-up, your healthcare team will talk to you about:
- whether your need any further treatment
- any new symptoms or side effects you have.
They will also check that your wounds are healing properly.
After this, how often you have check-ups will depend on the results and how you are feeling. Even if everything is fine, your healthcare team will want to see you regularly so they can check on your progress.