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Rare disease
Trans-anal barotrauma by compressed air leading to sigmoid perforation due to a dangerous practical joke
  1. Harvinder Singh Pahwa,
  2. Awanish Kumar,
  3. Rohit Srivastava,
  4. Anurag Rai
  1. Department of Surgery, CSMMU (Erst KGMU), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Harvinder Singh Pahwa, pahwakgmu{at}yahoo.co.in

To present a case report of trans-anal barotrauma by high-pressure compressed air jet as a dangerous practical joke, that is, playful insufflation of high-pressure air jet through the anal orifice resulting in sigmoid perforation. The patient presented to emergency a day later with complaints of severe pain in the abdomen and abdominal distension following insufflation of high-pressure air jet through the anus. On examination, he had signs suggestive of perforation peritonitis and x-ray of the abdomen showed gas under the diaphragm. An emergency exploratory laparotomy was performed which revealed a 4-cm perforation in the sigmoid colon. Resection of the segment containing perforation along with the surrounding devitalised part was done with double-barrel colostomy. Reversal of colostomy was done after 8 weeks. Follow-up was uneventful.

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.