Despite gastric juices and laxatives, doctors find an intact insect in a man's intestines. Does this happen even more often than expected?
Munich – A colonoscopy is an important part of cancer prevention and a routine examination for doctors. A thin tube with a camera is inserted into the intestine, which provides images of the inside of the organ. During a check-up in the USA recently, doctors found something apparently unusual.
Doctors find intact fly during colonoscopy
Like that American Journal of Gastroenterology citing a study, a 63-year-old patient underwent a colonoscopy at his own request. Doctors then discovered a completely intact fly in the colon on the cameras during the routine cancer examination. “This case represents a very rare colonoscopic finding,” described researchers in the study from the University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, Missouri.
It is unclear how the fly got into the man's intestines. He only remembers eating pizza and salad two days before the procedure. The fly could have entered the body unnoticed through food.
“Simply unthinkable”: Doctors find complete fly during colonoscopy
In any case, the discovery caused a stir: “To have a fly as intact as this one is simply unthinkable,” said Dr. Matthew Bechtold, a gastroenterologist at University of Missouri Health Care, said Business Insider. In his 20 years of professional activity, he has never seen an animal so perfectly preserved. “I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, so I’ve seen a lot,” he added.
Normally the animal or even the eggs would be decomposed by gastric juices alone. Before a patient goes for a colonoscopy, he or she also takes fluids and laxatives that empty the intestines. However, the fly still remained in the body and was not excreted. But you shouldn't worry, says Bechtold. It is “very, very rare” to find an insect during a colonoscopy. Of his approximately 30,000 colonoscopies, the doctor has only discovered an insect once.
More often than you thought? Doctors suspect that insects often go undetected in the body
Nevertheless, the find is not an isolated case. For example, a 52-year-old woman was found with a cockroach that she accidentally swallowed in her apartment derstandard.at reported. This animal can survive for a month without eating. Dead ants, spiders and moths have also been found during investigations.
An Italian team of doctors therefore suspects that there are many more cases like that of the intact fly, but that they are either not abnormal or are not documented. According to doctors, “the vast majority of accidentally swallowed insects pass through the gastrointestinal tract without incident.” This could be due, for example, to the chitin shell of some animals, which protects them from digestive enzymes.
In Germany, all statutory health insurance patients aged 50 and over are entitled to a colonoscopy. For many doctors, this age limit is too late. A Munich doctor is therefore demanding that health insurance companies pay for examinations from the age of 40. (jh)
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