Bowels hanging out – Rectal prolapse – Dr Ken Wong

This picture shows a patient with legs spread open. The pink thing in the middle is actually about 15cm or several inches of bowel hanging out the back side. Obviously this is quite uncomfortable. This is also known as rectal prolapse. I see this quite a lot in elderly women, occasionally men. Usually, this problem is associated with a lot of constipation and straining. Having babies often weakens the muscles in the area, allowing bowels to hang out. This condition often requires keyhole surgery to remove a segment of bowel and hitch the bowel back up. On the Central Coast, NSW, I would see probably about six or seven cases a year but estimate that there would be a lot more people who are shy in coming forward with this problem.