title: Patients' experiences of pancaking while living with a colostomy: a survey.
abstract: Anecdotally, pancaking is recognised as troublesome within stoma care, leaving many people with ostomies feeling exasperated in trying to deal with this difficult problem. Stoma care nurses offer strategies to help alleviate it, but when strategies fail and appliances continue to leak, or require changing owing to risk of leaking, individuals often feel helpless, demoralised and quality of life can be damaged. A postal survey was carried out to try and identify some of the issues relating to pancaking. Eighty two percent of respondents were likely to experience some degree of pancaking and an alarming 58% changed their pouch more often as a management technique. Therefore, as a consequence of pancaking, the health economy is affected because each individual who suffers from pancaking uses a higher number of appliances. This results in increased costs for the NHS. There is currently no published research regarding pancaking, meaning an integrated approach to finding solutions is needed.
authors.forename: Angie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perrin
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Redmond
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cowin
authors.affiliation: Salts Healthcare.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wiltshire
authors.affiliation: Stoma Care, Professor.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Salford Royal Foundation Trust.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carlson
keywords: Colostomy; Leakage; Pancaking; Sore skin; Stoma