surgeons are supposed to be tough. surgeons have seen some pretty wierd stuff, but occasionally you see something that really churns the stomach.the patient came in after being involved in a car accident. he had an acute abdomen, but was otherwise stable. x-rays confirmed free air in the abdomen. easy call. the patient went to theater.
we opened the abdomen. it was full of intestinal content. not too surprising. and then...lying in this soup, free in the abdomen we found a meter long tape worm! i'm not embarrased to say i gagged. i threw it in a kidney dish where it entertained us with its peristaltic movements.
i found the perforation. it was mid small bowel. in the lumen i saw two more strands of fettuchini. i removed them. each was also about a meter long. (note at this point that in no way do i advocate surgery as treatment for tapeworm. i mean poor surgeons! that's just gross). soon all three worms were in the kidney dish writhing around merrily. they pretty much filled the entire dish.
the rest was easy. repaire, rinse, close up and go home.
but i have not felt comfortable about eating fettuchini since then.
