What happens if your intestine rupture

In rare cases, surgery or an endoscopy can make a hole in the intestine. Symptoms of a bowel perforation include: sudden and severe abdominal pain nausea and vomiting fever chills swelling and bloating of the abdomen. Your doctor will try to find the cause of bowel perforation.

The doctor will examine your abdomen to look for any swelling or tightness. The doctor will also listen for bowel sounds because there will be no sounds of digestion if you have a bowel perforation. You may have the following tests: CT scan to try to find the hole x-rays to look for air in the abdominal cavity, which is a sign of a hole or tear in the intestine ultrasound complete blood count CBC blood tests to look for bacteria.

Most bowel perforations are treated with surgery to repair the hole. The surgeon will also remove the fluids and waste products that have leaked into the abdomen.

Sometimes people with a bowel perforation are not healthy enough to have surgery. In these cases, the healthcare team may carefully watch the hole to see if it heals on its own. For some people, it may be necessary to remove part of the intestine. This can lead to a person needing a colostomy or ileostomy. On rare occasions, a gastrointestinal perforation may heal on its own and not require surgery. If this occurs, a course of antibiotics may be the only treatment. Possible complications of gastrointestinal perforation include internal bleeding and sepsis.

Gastrointestinal perforation can also lead to abdominal abscesses or permanent bowel damage. It may even cause part of the bowel to die. Certain lifestyle factors may increase the risk of this, including smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and obesity.

Gastrointestinal perforation is a serious condition with many different causes, some of which are more preventable than others. If a person has any of the illnesses that may lead to gastrointestinal perforation, they should follow the treatment plan that their doctor advises.

This reduces the risk of developing the condition. The size of the hole and the length of time before treatment may determine how successfully surgeons can repair the perforation.

This will, in turn, affect the recovery. Gastritis is a widespread condition where the lining of the stomach becomes inflamed. Gastritis can be chronic, even lasting a lifetime. Here, we look…. What happens inside the body after a person eats dictate how they put on weight and how long it takes to process nutrients.

The technical name for this is peritonitis , which is a painful precursor to sepsis —or a body-wide infection. Complications of untreated perforation may include:.

Complications depend on a person's general health, as well as the amount of time it has taken to diagnose and treat the perforation. Bowel perforations may occur spontaneously unexpectedly as a result of a medical condition or instead be a complication of various diagnostic and surgical procedures that accidentally create a hole in the colon.

Trauma, especially blunt trauma to the abdomen, is also an important cause of bowel perforations. Procedure associated causes include:. The colonoscopy perforation rate appears to be around 1 in people who have screening colonoscopies and 1 of people who have a therapeutic colonoscopy for example, to remove a polyp. Causes of spontaneous bowel perforation those unrelated to surgery or procedures include:. Scientists have found that a number of factors may increase your risk of developing a bowel perforation.

These include both factors involved in surgery or a procedure iatrogenic causes and bowel diseases characterized by inflammation. Risk factors may include:. Risk factors for perforation during colonoscopy include being female, older age, a history of diverticular disease, and bowel obstructions. If your healthcare provider suspects a bowel perforation, she can order tests to confirm her suspicion. A simple abdominal X-ray may show gas outside the colon but is not often diagnostic.

A CT scan of your abdomen with or without contrast or a barium enema or swallow may be needed. A complete blood count may show an elevation of your white blood cell count if the perforation has been present for a while, or evidence of anemia due to bleeding.

Small perforations may sometimes take several imaging studies and time to accurately diagnose. The majority of perforations are surgically repaired. Depending on the location and size of the tear, the healthcare provider might be able to fix it through an endoscope, similar to the one used during a colonoscopy—but this is not an option for everyone.

Open bowel surgery may or may not result in a stoma and colostomy —an artificial opening outside of your stomach where stool drains into a small bag until the bowel is healed. During your initial recovery period, you will not be able to drink or eat anything by mouth. This is called resting the bowels and allows the inner lining time to heal properly. You will also have a nasogastric tube in place to drain the contents of your stomach for a period of time. You may receive intravenous antibiotics and nutrition for a few days if you're in the hospital.

Although you may be anxious to return to your normal routine, it's important that you give your colon time to heal properly , and follow your healthcare provider's orders. Bowel perforation may occur spontaneously, such as with inflammatory bowel disease, or during surgery or diagnostic tests. Symptoms may come on rapidly, or instead slowly, and should be considered in anyone who has risk factors for a perforation combined with risk factors for the condition.

When caught early, there are different treatment options available, but even with surgery which is most often required the bowel can often be preserved and repaired without a colostomy. Recovery can take time, both for healing, and to correct and risk factors which led to the perforation. If someone gets treated immediately for a perforated bowel, their life expectancy should not be affected at all. However, if the condition is untreated and a person develops sepsis, the chances of dying or developing a life-changing condition are high.

Bilchik adds that if the gastrointestinal perforation leads to an infection, that ups the risk of death. This can happen when bacteria, bile, stomach acid, partially digested food and even stool leak into the abdominal cavity. A person would then start to show symptoms of infection like a high fever, vomiting and severe stomach pain, which would need immediate medical attention. More: Woman slowly starving to death from rare stomach disorder.

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