What is Bowel Perforation?
What is Bowel Perforation?
Gynecologists, urologists, and general surgeons rely on laparoscopic surgery and robotic intervention for the less invasive and safe nature of the procedure. Yet keyhole surgery carries risks of complications. Laparoscopic surgery punctures or perforates bowels and potentially cause serious and life threatening situations.
The patients are usually discharged within a day or two from the hospital. But the complications manifest after a few days when the patients start their normal routine life.
Bowel perforation could lead to serious health complications
Gastrointestinal injuries due to laparoscopic interventions are on the rise. Study reveals that the small bowel received 56% perforation injuries, the large intestines sustained 39% perforation injuries and the stomach sustained 4% perforation injuries. Symptoms of bowel perforation post a keyhole surgery are mostly undetectable.
Only after the complication worsens, patients present the issue through pain and suffering. Clinical examinations do not reveal much. Doctors rely on contrast CT scanning to identify the underlying cause of such perforations. In the absence of quick medical intervention, even multi-organ failure could occur.
Quick diagnosis is of paramount importance
If you have developed inexplicable pain in your abdomen or fever after a laparoscopic surgical procedure, consult your physician for immediate diagnosis and resolution of the problem. If an error has occurred in a surgery leading to perforation of the bowel, the surgeon and the hospital could underplay or may even deny medical negligence fearing litigation and adverse publicity in the community.
If you or your loved one has suffered perforation or puncture of the bowel due to the negligence of a surgeon, call our New York perforated bowel malpractice attorneys for legal help.
Bowel perforations could also occur when junior surgeons who assist seniors inadvertently puncture the bowel using needles, quick and hasty movements of the hands resulting in tearing of the adjacent organs. Usually these surgical errors go unnoticed and may also be outside the laparoscope’s camera view. When there is a delay in the diagnosis of a puncture to the bowels, formation of abscess, peritonitis, sepsis, and even multiple organ failure could occur.
Bowel injuries
Bowel injury symptoms that follow laparoscopy include:
· Nausea and lack of appetite
· Cardiac arrhythmia
· Abdominal pain necessitating pain killers
· Inability to move comfortably
· Decreased urination
· Inflammation, tenderness and discharge near the surgical area
· Increased draining of blood or contents of bowel
· Fever or hyperpyrexia
Large bowel injury may also occur during pelvic dissection carried out during laparoscopic hysterectomy. The medical team of doctors and surgeons need to have a sound knowledge of the laparoscopic procedure that can involve the anatomy of neighboring organs. Traction in excess, dissection procedures involving proximate intestinal walls and absence of clear visuals contribute to most of the bowel injuries.
Reasons for bowel perforations
Bowel perforations may be caused by
· Laparoscopic procedures
· Error in enema procedure
· Cancer of the gastrointestinal tract
· Inflammation of the appendix
· Inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease
· Ulcers
· Erosion of the vaginal mesh involving the bowel
· Herniation of the wall of colon
· Surgical errors
· Abdominal injuries caused by sharp tools
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