Young man suffered intestinal perforation due to self-medication

On September 19, Dr. Nguyen The Hung, Head of the General Surgery Department - Saigon General Hospital, said that doctors here had just performed timely surgery to save a male patient VTQ (21 years old; residing in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) with a perforated stomach.

Dr. Nguyen The Hung, Head of General Surgery Department - Saigon General Hospital, examines a patient after surgery.

Mr. Q. was admitted to the hospital with epigastric pain, high fever and vomiting. The patient said that before, every time he had a cold or fever, he often bought medicine to treat it himself. In addition, due to the nature of his job, he often had to drink alcohol.

After examination, X-ray, CT scan, blood test, the results showed that Mr. Q's white blood cell count increased by 12,300 G/L (the number of white blood cells in normal human blood is about 4.0 to 10.0G/L); there was free air in the abdomen.

Mr. Q. underwent emergency surgery that night. The doctor noted a 5 mm hole in the prepylorus from the stomach into the duodenum. The patient had the hole sutured by endoscopy. 3 days after the surgery, Mr. Q. was able to defecate, remove the urinary catheter..., no longer had a fever, and could eat and drink on his own. It is expected that in the next few days, the patient will be discharged from the hospital.

Doctor Hung noted that the patient had the perforation sutured, but after being discharged from the hospital, he needed to continue medical treatment and have regular check-ups every month. "The patient had a stomach ulcer that led to perforation, suturing the perforation was only the initial step. About a month after being discharged from the hospital, the patient had to have another endoscopy to check and treat the ulcer medically. Because the ulcer could perforate again and a second perforation would require a gastrectomy. At this point, the condition is very serious and the mortality rate is high" - Doctor Hung emphasized and said that the most important thing is that in the future, the patient must be careful in using drugs, especially painkillers, and should not buy them for treatment on their own.

According to Dr. Hung, in medical literature, there are 4 causes of stomach perforation: ulcers due to stress, eating, taking anti-inflammatory drugs; cancer; knife stab; endoscopy during biopsy causing perforation.

"When the stomach is perforated, the most important thing is early diagnosis because at that time, gastric fluid gas is emitted into the abdomen, the first 6 hours will cause peritonitis. After 6 hours, if there is no intervention, the gastric fluid with bacteria will develop, causing peritonitis and if delayed further, it will cause inflammation, infection, and poisoning. At this time, the patient can be in critical condition" - Dr. Hung analyzed.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/suc-khoe/nam-thanh-nien-thung-ruot-vi-tu-mua-thuoc-uong-dieu-tri-20230919164417208.htm