You might be surprised to hear that there is actually a difference between certain types of ostomy pouches, depending on the one you use. If you don’t know what an ostomy pouch is, I will briefly explain it before I get on with the rest of the article. An ostomy pouch is basically a medical bag that attaches to an individual’s stoma. A stoma is a medically created hole in the side of a person’s abdomen where the waste, like urine, feces, and gas, is outputted. People wear ostomy pouches in order to catch the output that is coming out of their stoma. Without the ostomy pouch, the stoma would simply leak output and get super gross stuff all over the body, clothing, and whatever is around in the area. You can clearly see now how important an ostomy pouch is, especially if you are experiencing a lot of output at any given time. Well, like I was saying earlier, there are actually a few different types of ostomy pouches available in the market today. With all the medical advances we have made in recent years in this country, it makes sense that there are a few different options available for people who need to purchase ostomy pouches. There is some disparity of pricing between the type of pouch, brand, and size of the pouch, so that may be something that you want to keep in mind if you are paying for ostomy pouches out of pocket (not all of them are covered by insurances).

To start off, let’s talk about the difference between one-piece ostomy pouch systems and two-piece ostomy pouch systems. They are both kind of true to their name, so you can basically get the gist of what each one is simply by looking at what they are called.

However, I want to talk about why each one is important and when they should be used. A one-piece system, like the name suggests, is where the ostomy pouch and the skin barrier are all attached together in one complete package; hence the name, one-piece pouch. This pouch system is only good for one time use and cannot usually be emptied like other pouches. It is important to note that, when changing a one-piece ostomy pouch, you have to remove the entire skin barrier from your stoma in order to empty the pouch, which can be a huge problem for some people. It can be hard to get a good seal on your skin barrier, especially if you are new to the world of ostomy. That’s why some people steer clear of one-piece ostomy pouch systems if at all possible. 

Two-piece systems, on the other hand, involve much less work when it comes to changing the ostomy pouch itself. Since the skin barrier and the pouch are not actually attached permanently, they can be taken apart down into two pieces. What this means is that when you are going to change the ostomy pouch out, you don’t actually need to remove the skin barrier piece and can instead just change the pouch. This is a lot easier for changing ostomy pouches on the fly and leaves you less likely to have to go through the whole ordeal of trying to seal the skin barrier again. Thanks for reading, and I hope you learned something from this article!