China: Doctors remove 13 kg of faecal matter from 22-year-old man constipated since birth

In what appears to be a complex surgery, doctors in China removed 13 kg faecal matter from the intestine of a 22-year-old man, who suffered from a rare disease that rendered him constipated since birth.

According to Southeast Asian news service Asia One, the man, who was unnamed, suffered from a disease called Hirschsprung. The condition, which is found in newborns, causes difficulty in passing bowel because of missing nerve cells in the colon. Chronic constipation leads to pile up of waste, creating what is known as a ‘megacolon’.

Early treatment is required to prevent the patient from developing sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication in which toxins get mixed with the bloodstream. However, this man’s diagnosis was delayed until adulthood as his parents considered it a ‘small ailment’, the media reported.

Doctor Yin Lu of Tenth People’s Hospital in Shanghai, where the surgery was performed on June 8 said that the man’s colon had swollen so much that he looked as if he was more than nine months pregnant.

Reports added doctors removed a 30-inch long section of his colon filled with 13kg of faeces during the three-hour-long surgery. They said the man was taking laxatives, which provided only minor relief.