A man had to be rushed to hospital in the middle of the night after noticing his rectum had fallen out of his body.
The young man, whose name has not been revealed, told doctors he had been using his mobile while on the toilet for over half an hour while trying to poo. When they went to check him out, they found a massive lump measuring 16cm long sticking out of his anus.
The man underwent gastro-intestinal surgery at The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Zhongshan, southeast China, on Sunday, February 4, 2018, to successfully remove it. Dr Su Dan told local media the man was diagnosed with rectal prolapse, which occurs when the last part of the intestines loses its attachment within the body and becomes visible outside the body.
She said: ‘The patient had rectal prolapse since he was four years old, the bulge was able to retract. But he did not treat the condition and the situation has got worse.’ The doctor said there were bruises and blood spots along the patient’s intestinal wall. According to Dr Su, rectal prolapse usually occurs on children or elderly.
Although the man had the condition at a young age, Dr Su added that the cause of the prolapse is the long duration spent in toilet trying to poo as it can weaken the muscles in the pelvis.
Rectal prolapse is a condition in which the rectum (the last part of the large intestine before it exits the anus) loses its normal attachments inside the body, allowing it to telescope out through the anus, thereby turning it “inside out”. While this may be uncomfortable, it rarely results in an emergent medical problem. However, it can be quite embarrassing and often has a significant negative impact on patients’ quality of life.
Overall, rectal prolapse affects relatively few people (2.5 cases/100,000 people). This condition affects mostly adults, and women over 50 years of age are six times as likely as men to develop rectal prolapse. Most women with rectal prolapse are in their 60’s, while the few men who develop prolapse are much younger, averaging 40 years of age or less. In these younger patients, there is higher rate of autism, developmental delay, and psychiatric problems requiring multiple medications.
Although an operation is not always needed, the definitive treatment of rectal prolapse requires surgery.
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