A toxic bowel is also called toxic megacolon.
Toxic bowel or toxic megacolon is a rare, although also life threatening medical emergency condition, in which your colon swells up, weakens and then stops working as it should as a result of severe inflammation which can result from conditions such as C. diff or Clostridioides difficile or even IBD or inflammatory bowel disease.
Toxic bowel and the dilation of your colon can result in toxins building up and even leaking into your bloodstream, which can cause a widespread and life threatening infection that is called septic shock.
Symptoms of a toxic bowel are bloody diarrhea, rapid heart rate, fever, swelling, abdominal distension, nausea and vomiting, dehydration, dizziness and low blood pressure and severe abdominal pain and tenderness.
Toxic bowel can result from complications of conditions such as reduced blood flow to your colon or medications which impair your bowel motility, serious bacterial infections or parasitic infections like E. coli, Salmonella or C. difficile.
And even inflammatory bowel disease or ulcerative colitis, colitis or even Crohn's disease can cause toxic bowel.
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are major causes of toxic bowel.
If you think you have toxic bowel or you have toxic bowel you should go to the ER right away and not wait and put it off.
If left untreated toxic bowel can result in death.