For Limey (Mark)

Hi Mark,

I will try to explain the Sugar Baker Protocl as best I can. There are only 4 doctors in all of Canada who do this procedure, so we were lucky to be recommended to one who is only 2 hours away from where we live.

First you have to be in good physical shape as this surgery can take up to nine hours (hubby was in operating for 8 hours).

With my hubby they opened him up and removed pretty much all of the large and small intestines. From the first surgery they knew that there were seedlings all over his peritoneal wall (this is what holds all your organs in place). There were so many of these seedlings that they had to cut away pretty much all of this wall. Once they removed everything they needed to, they then fill the abdomine cavity with hot chemo (42 Celcious), and the doctors swish this all around for approximately 90 minutes. They then drain this out and sew you up (cannot use staples), then four incissions are made in your abdominal area where they insert four tubes. They once again fill the abdominal cavity with this hot chemo which is left in for 23 hours straight, at which time they empty it out, and leave you dry for 1 hour, this procedure is repeated for 5 days straight. For the first couple of days my hubby said he had a lot of pressure, but then I guess you get used to it. He was only in the hospital for a week and a half.

I beleive the doctor who developed this operation is Paul Sugarbaker. You can google him to see if you can find more information, but I know when we first heard about it I could not find out anything other than what the surgeon had explained to us. The surgeon my hubby had last April said he had done about 50 of these operations, and we know he has been doing them for some years. We were told that this was a specialized procedure and were lucky to have been able to have it done.

I wish you much luck on either finding more information or a doctor that does this procedure.
And as I said it is called the Sugarbaker Protocol here so I am sure it is the same in the US. I know I asked the question on here last year, and no one knew what I was talking about.

If I can be of anymore help just let me know.

My thought and prayers are with you!

Sue