A WOMAN’S intestines exploded and burst out of her stomach after a coughing fit.
The 52-year-old was suffering from Covid when several inches of her bowel protruded from her left side.
The woman had an incision in her abdomen from a previous surgery, which became infected a few days before the horrifying incident.
She had a history of operations following ventral hernia repair – which involves pushing an internal body part back in – 13 years prior.
The patient contracted coronavirus and battled repeated bouts of coughing.
This caused her to suffer a “spontaneous abdominal evisceration” when the intense force created so much pressure that her intestines ruptured through the old surgical opening.
She was rushed to hospital, where she was resuscitated, given antibiotics and had her wound washed out.
Doctors then cleaned her intestines, put them back inside her body and re-closed the skin.
But to avoid it splitting once more, they used several super-strong stitches over multiple layers of abdominal fat and skin.
Writing in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, medics said this was a “rare” complication, but the woman’s surgery was successful and she was sent home from hospital six days later in a “stable condition”.
“To our knowledge, this is the first case of evisceration due to Covid-19 infection exacerbation,” the authors, from the University of Illinois, Chicago, said.
“Post-operative cough is a known risk factor for fascial dehiscence and evisceration.
“Although evisceration is a rare presentation, surgeons should be aware of the possibility and take it into account when performing
surgery on patients with Covid-19.
Abdominal evisceration, also called disembowelment, is a rare but serious complication of surgery.
It occurs when a patient’s internal organs pop out through an incision because the wound didn’t heal properly.
It happens to three in 100 people who have abdominal and pelvic surgeries, according to a study.
This can also affect up to 10 per cent of elderly patients.
The complication kills up to 40 per cent of patients due to excessive blood loss, prolonged severe pain or injury to the exposed organs.
Experts have identified coughing as a notable risk factor.
