Anyone else ever heard of this or seen a similar case??

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Hi,

So I am in triage last night and a mother brings her 12 month old child in for a problem with the child's colostomy.

So anyway immediatly I look that the site only to see that about 5 or so inches of bowel had eviserated out of the colostomy site. The child only had the colostomy beccause of prematury and was eventually going to have it closed.

My hospital is a community hospital, so we had to send the child to a tertiary care facility where the initial colostomy was done.

Has anyone else seen this or heard of this happening????

Sweetooth

[core0]

Hi,

So I am in triage last night and a mother brings her 12 month old child in for a problem with the child's colostomy.

So anyway immediatly I look that the site only to see that about 5 or so inches of bowel had eviserated out of the colostomy site. The child only had the colostomy beccause of prematury and was eventually going to have it closed.

My hospital is a community hospital, so we had to send the child to a tertiary care facility where the initial colostomy was done.

Has anyone else seen this or heard of this happening????

Sweetooth

Did the colostomy eviscerate or did the bowel prolapse out of the ostomy site. The former is pretty rare but not unknown. The latter is unfortunately pretty common. It mostly has to do with the thickness of the bowel versus the diameter. Its the same reason that kids are more likely to have intussusception than adults. Either way you did the right thing. You sometimes have to reduce prolapses under anesthesia. It takes some skill and a community hospital is a poor place to learn it.

David Carpenter, PA-C

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

hi,

I think it was probably more of a prolapse. I am guessing they woul have to a put a 1 year old under anesthesia for that, she was in a world of pain without us eve touching it. Thanks for your reply.

Sweetooth

[prmenrs, RN]

She would go to the OR, anesthesia, the whole 9 yards. I've seen it happen in the NICU. Sometimes, it's very gradual until finally someone says. "ummm, docs?"