A man who recently underwent abdominal surgery sneezed out parts of his large intestine while eating breakfast with his wife at a Florida restaurant.
What happened to him is known as evisceration, a “rare complication of abdominal surgery,” according to a case report published in the American Journal of Medical Case Reports.
The man, aged 63, had recently undergone a cystectomy, surgery on the bladder, with the incision site sealed with surgical staples.
He had gone to his urology clinic that morning for a check-up, where “his wound appeared to be well healed and the overlying staples had been removed. He and his wife went to have breakfast to celebrate,” the report states.
Image of a man suffering from stomach pain.
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However, during breakfast, he “forced” sneezed, followed by a coughing fit, which caused the surgical site to rupture.
“He immediately noticed a ‘wet’ feeling and pain in his lower abdomen,” the report states. “Looking down, he observed several pink loops of intestine protruding from his recent surgical site.”
The man considered driving to the hospital, but fearing injury, his wife called an ambulance.
Paramedics discovered a 3-inch section of his incision had been ruptured, with “large amounts of intestine” protruding from it.
Although the paramedic initially considered manually pushing out her intestines, she feared she might injure them; Instead, she kept the exposed intestine moist with a saline-soaked tampon and held it close to her body by wrapping it in gauze.
Image of an ambulance.
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He was admitted to hospital, where “vital signs were within normal limits.”
“No evidence of injury” was seen to his intestines during the operation, where his intestine was put back inside his body and the wound was closed with a “variety of sutures.”
And six days after sneezing his gut, the man was discharged from hospital, following what was described as “a reassuring abdominal examination.”
The report said the man suffered a tear at the surgical site, a complication known as wound dehiscence. This is a “well-recognized complication,” which the National Library of Medicine explains as “a partial or complete separation of previously brought together wound edges, due to a failure of the wound to heal properly.”
However, “evisceration through the abdominal surgical site after cystectomy is poorly described,” the report said, adding that there were only seven known cases of evisceration following cystectomy.
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