Abstract
Although it is relatively difficult for elderly patients to manage their stoma by themselves and sometimes they get into trouble with it, they rarely injure severely their stoma by themselves. Herein we report a case of an elderly patient who pulled out his stoma and bowel, tore them off and required an emergency operation. An 89-year-old male underwent a Hartmann's operation for rectal cancer. Two days after the surgery, he went into restlessness, pulled out his stoma and bowel and tore them off on his bed. A nurse who entered his room found it, and an emergency operation was performed. The height of his stoma was 3 cm from skin level when it was created at first, which might be so high that he could grasp it. In addition, there was a possibility that we could prevent self-pulling out if we had used extraperitoneal route method. We surgeons have to recognize these possibilities when we make a stoma for elderly patients.
