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Cooking with Gas

Documented: A patient's intestine explodes from cauterization during surgery due to gas; A patient's intestine exploded during a colotomy.

Gross, Jurim & Krausz report a case of colonic explosion following use of diathermy. Joyce & Rasmussen report a gastric rupture due to diathermy-elicited gas explosion during gastrotomy in a patient with intestinal ischemia resulting in obstruction and jejunal and gastric dilatation is presented. They add: "In the obstructed stomach or small bowel, a proliferation of hydrogen- and methane-producing bacteria can occur, leading to the accumulation of these combustible gases in explosive concentrations."

References:

• http://tafkac.org/medical/exploding_intestines.html