An unnamed 22-year-old Chinese man has had 30 inches of his severely enlarged bowel removed by doctors at Tenth People’s Hospital in Shanghai, taking with it 13 kilograms of faeces in the process.
The man is believed to have had Hirschsprung’s diesease, which affects the bowels’ normal function and leaves them extremely prone to swelling.
The extraordinary amount of faeces inside of his bowel had built up since birth due to constipation, causing him to look ‘nine months pregnant’ and ‘like he was about to explode.’
The doctors said the man had told them he’d always suffered from extreme constipation but had finally decided to seek medical treatment after laxatives were no longer providing him with adequate relief.
It was only after scans and medical testing that doctors discovered the man had months, possibly even years, worth of faeces backlogged inside his colon, causing his abdomen to swell up.
Dr Lin Yu told Inverse Science that the procedure took a little over three hours but they managed to successfully removed the enlarged body part.
While Hirschsprung’s disease is unlikely to be diagnosed in adults, it’s more common for males to be affected by the condition, and it currently affects one in every 5,000 babies.
Thankfully for all involved, doctors managed to sew up the bowel at both ends and prevented any faeces from falling out.
