Man Hospitalized After More Than 3 Feet of His Small Intestine Breaks Through His Skin

An 83-year-old man was hospitalized after his small intestine partially burst through his skin.

The incident occurred on Feb. 14 in Romania, according to the American Journal of Case Reports, per The Daily Mail. The unnamed man, who had a history of health problems and had been treated for rectal cancer, experienced a “spontaneous evisceration of multiple small-bowel loops” after a hernia repair, according to the journal.  

More than three feet of the man’s small intestine broke through his skin in a two-inch wide spot after he suffered a recurring “parastomal hernia,” which, according to Washington University’s Hernia Surgery Center, is an intestinal bulge close to a stoma, a bowel opening created to help waste pass to a bag. 

“Evisceration of intra-abdominal contents is a rare and potentially life-threatening condition, most commonly caused by burst abdomen, stab wound, or abdominal gunshot injuries,” the authors of the case report wrote. 

But in this instance, “the patient did not report any recent episodes of coughing, vomiting, abdominal trauma, or symptoms suggestive of bowel obstruction.”

The man underwent emergency surgery and received plasma and red blood cell transfusions, after which he eventually recovered and was discharged from the hospital eight days after the operation, the report stated. 

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“Spontaneous evisceration of a parastomal hernia with associated small-bowel strangulation is an exceptionally rare but serious late complication of stoma formation,” the authors of the report wrote.

Because the condition can be “potentially life-threatening,” it’s “imperative” that patients undergo surgery as soon as possible to prevent “irreversible bowel injury” and even save their life, the authors said.