Doctors remove 28 pounds of faeces from man's bowel after 22 years

Doctors removed 28 pounds of feces from the bowels of a man who was reportedly constipated since birth.


The unnamed 22-year-old had 30 inches of his grossly enlarged bowel removed by surgeons at Tenth People's Hospital of Shanghai in China.

It is believed the young man had Hirschsprung's disease, which causes the bowels to swell because the nerves that are supposed to control the gut are missing.

Doctors said the man looked like he was nine months pregnant because of the painful enlargement and feces backup.

The medical experts believe he had been constipated for years and looked 'like he was about to explode.'

The patient said he had always suffered from constipation and used laxatives, but those only offered a brief relief.

He finally went to the hospital so doctors could relieve him of his symptoms.

Tests conducted determined the man had months, even years, worth of feces inside a portion of his colon, causing the immense swelling of his abdomen.

Dr Yin Lu said the procedure lasted three hours and removed the enlarged body part, according to Inverse Science.

After removing his gut, surgeons stitched it up at both ends to stop feces from falling out.
Hirschsprung's disease affects one in every 5,000 babies.

The disease is uncommonly diagnosed in adults.

It also is more common for males to be affected by the condition.

Furthermore, Hirschsprung's is associated with certain inherited conditions, such as Down's syndrome and other abnormalities present at birth, such as congenital heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The condition is congenital and usually causes visually noticeable symptoms from birth, although sometimes it is not obvious until a child is a little older.

Some who develop this extreme form of constipation will need to have stoma surgery – where a small on the abdomen is created to divert the flow of feces into a pouch.

For babies, symptoms include not passing the dark poop withing 48 hours after being born.This is called meconium.

Other red flags are a swollen stomach, gassy, diarrhea and throwing up green fluids.
In young children, signs include a swollen stomach, persistent constipation, failure to thrive, not eating well and gaining lots of weight.