The large intestine seems to have an anatomical and functional role, still incompletely elucidated. The colon cannot be completely resected; Total colonectomy, in liver cirrhosis, would improve the course of the disease, but does not allow survival. The same goes for the bladder. There are two organs with the role of reservoir necessary to be kept in the configuration of the digestive tract, respectively of the excretory system.
In anorexia nervosa, the digestive tract is removed from the circuit but the bladder is preserved and patients appear to function with a virtual digestive tract, which allows survival.
It seems that patients with anorexia nervosa, who eat anyway, have a better evolution, so filling the digestive tract with physiological content may improve the evolution (absorption of the digestive content seems to be completely affected but, perhaps, mimicking the real conditions digestive filling, physiological, improve evolution).
Another possibility in anorexia nervosa would be sublingual feeding, if there is still absorption in the oral cavity (or if such a component can be developed through exercise).
Another argument that the large intestine is a vital organ is the stool of newborns fed exclusively on milk; they present the stool approximately as in adults, made of feces, and do not eliminate a simple content of digested milk. It seems important to eliminate stool in the form of feces on the whole scale of animal evolution. Theoretically, the contents of the small intestine could be eliminated directly to the outside, but, on the whole scale of animal evolution, this form of storage and elimination of a fecal content is needed.
The colon seems to be a reservoir that is extra and useless, but the fact that it is indispensable in all animals and humans proves its involvement in the digestive tract as a vital organ. Perhaps future studies will be able to unravel the mystery of an organ that, beyond the anatomical role of the reservoir, seems to have the role of a vital organ.
Mihaela Ghimpu
Clinical immunology specialist
and allergology