• gregorum@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    preface: i am not a medical profesional

    while i can’t say that it’s never happened, it would be extremely unlikely for a number of reasons:

    1. long before it got to that point, the patient’s gastroenteritis (an acute condition caused by the infection and inflammation of the digestive system, a common symptom of which is gas pains) would be so painful, they would stop eating and seek medical treatment. We’re talking level 8-10 on the pain scale. Excruciating pain. They’d literally be screaming in pain long before it got to this point.

    2. the amount of force required to perforate the intestinal wall with air pressure alone would be so great that it would force its way in another direction first, likely clearing whatever obstruction or even traveling “the wrong way” before causing an intestinal rupture. Also, see #1

    3. intestinal perforations/ruptures when a large amount of force is applied to a small area. with gas, that force is applied over a large area, so no one area has much force applied. as such, no one spot has enough force to cause a rupture/perforation even though the overall amount of force is greater.

    4. the intestinal wall is surprisingly strong and resilient.

    of course, this is just a typical scenario, and there could be outliers/edge cases where something very bizarre may occur.

      • neidu2@feddit.nl
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        9 months ago

        Sausage skin.

        On a more serious note, it’s called Serosa (the outter part), which is a type of connective tissue. It’s extremely strong.

      • gregorum@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Intestinal tissue. It’s a specific type of tissue. More specific than that? Lots of cellulose and blood vessels. small, smooth muscles are what are responsible for expanding and contracting in order to move food and stool through the various stages of digestion from beginning to end.