At a recent colorectal journal club in Melbourne (photo below) , I realised how there is still a significant gender gap in Colorectal Surgery. As women colorectal surgeons, we are in a unique position to mitigate the embarrassment faced by most women when presenting with anorectal symptoms. My patients often remind me about how lucky […]

A hernia is a condition where part of one’s internal structures protrudes through a defect or weakening in the surface of our body. A hernia can be in the groin, the abdominal wall, e.g. umbilical, a prior scar, e.g. appendicectomy scar or Caesarian scars etc. A hernia may give you no symptoms, or you may […]

Last year, my colleagues and I published a review article in Australian Journal of General Practice about current Australian guidelines on screening patients with no symptoms of bowel cancer which happen to have a family history of bowel cancer. I have attached a copy of the article, which is available to download for free. The […]

In this study, the authors looked at the functional brain MRI images of patients with faecal incontinence and compared them to healthy individuals. When the rectum in these individuals was stimulated, the response observed in the brain was somewhat different to that seen in healthy individuals. This suggests that the brain-gut interaction plays an important […]