World’s Most Comprehensive Care for IBD

Columbia’s Division of Colorectal Surgery has unmatched expertise in the surgical management of Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), offering the most innovative surgical approaches to preserve intestinal length and help patients retain continence after bowel resection.

“When treating patients with Crohn’s disease, the difficult decision is when to operate,” says Ravi Kiran, MD, Chief and Program Director. “Too much surgery is counterproductive because the patient loses too much bowel. Too little means the patient will have to struggle with ongoing disease. Our goal is to intervene at just the right time, to just the right degree, using the latest techniques to improve the patient’s condition and quality of life.”

The Columbia team is often able to conserve bowel and avoid creating an ostomy when performing surgery in Crohn’s patients with internal fistulas and complex bowel disease. “We perform stricturoplasty to alleviate bowel narrowing from scar tissue, and we routinely perform procedures offered by very few other centers to achieve the same result,” says Dr. Kiran.

Dr. Kiran is also among the few surgeons in the world able to perform a K-pouch (continent) ileostomy. This operation also allows patients to retain continence after colon/rectal resection and can greatly improve patients’ quality of life.

Renowned for his approach to inflammatory bowel disease and complex colorectal conditions, Dr. Kiran has made innovations in laparoscopic and open colorectal surgery, anorectal procedures, and reoperative abdominal and pelvic surgery. He has assembled a world-class team of experienced surgeons.

With expertise in laparoscopic and robotic surgery, single-incision techniques, complex reoperative abdominal and pelvic surgery, and ability to repair and revise ileoanal pouches, Columbia’s Division of Colorectal Surgery offers a virtually unrivalled range of options to patients with IBD.

“Physicians should refer to us when they want their IBD patients to benefit from a timely, thorough approach. Whether a minimally invasive procedure or an extensive open surgery is required, and when the case is complicated, patients will have the best possible care here,” says Dr. Kiran. The Division of Colorectal Surgery has offices in Upper Manhattan, Midtown, Riverdale, Tarrytown, Cortlandt Manor, Bronxville and Scarsdale, New York and Englewood and New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Learn more about the Division of Colorectal Surgery

To refer a patient, please call: (212) 342-1155