Peristomal skin problems

The skin around your stoma, also called your peristomal skin, should look and feel like the skin on the rest of your abdomen.

People with an ostomy have concerns that their skin may become irritated due to urine or stool from their stoma, or from having a pouching system on their skin all the time.  Studies show that between 10-70% of people with an ostomy experience some type of skin problem, and that often people with an ostomy cannot identify if they have a skin problem.

It is important to protect the skin from urine or stool and to use ostomy products correctly to decrease the chance of skin irritation. This is why finding the product that gives you the best fit for your stoma and abdomen is important.

We use the basic rules of:

• Keep it simple
• The fewer products used on the skin the better – this means no baby wipes, no soap, no skin barrier films (Skin Prep, etc.)