exploding organs

[stilleto]

medical peeps, can someone's organ explode?

because last week i had a family member tell me that she went in for emergency gall bladder removal surgery and the surgeon told her that her gall bladder was about to EXPLODE. i had a coworker last year tell me the same thing. growing up, i always heard kids say that a classmate had to have their appendix out, and it was about to explode.

SO i just heard on TV- there is some special about meth labs and the woman being interviewed said she had a friend's son who died from an overdose and that his heart EXPLODED.


i call bullshit.

 

[Cal_21]

My weenor

 

[mrplunkey]

An infected gallbladder doesn't technically "explode", but it most definitely ruptures under the pressure of an infection. There can be a lot of pressure there -- as evidenced by surgeons doing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy who accidentally nicks the gallbladder. So I guess technically yes, it can "explode", but not due to anything it would normally do on its own.

As far as a heart, I don't know of any hearts literally "exploding" from its own pressure. Now I wouldn't be surprised if the arteries and/or coronary capillaries ruptured due to high blood pressure. I could also see drugs driving the heart rate and heart contractility to ischemia where pieces (and eventually all) of the heart dies.

So no, organs don't technically "explode" unless they are infected under pressure or pressed-on by some other force (i.e. a cavitation wound from a rifle or a car wreck).

 

[75th]

 

[b0und]

I think in rare cases the human heart can explode. For example through overdoses of extreme stimulants like Methamphetamine.







b0und (just guessing)

 

[Creepusmaximus]

Cool. Meth heads are such fun to watch. If they get close you should beat them horribly with a bat just so they don't get the idea of hang around you.

We use to throw bums down the sub way stairs for the same reason. Move along boy nothing to see here.

 

[chazk]

Stilleto wanna know something even stranger .

I saw on T.V a man ate some food that digested into methane gas ,his body sparked a fire through a chemical reaction he then burned to a crisp from the inside out
Its called spontanious human combustion Look up up , many cases all over the world have occured.


As far as organs explosing a relative had his appendix explode as the doctors were removing it. The doctors told him as they opened him up it burst open and show stuff all. Had he been on the table 1 minute later he would have been dead.

 

[JayC9]

Stilleto wanna know something even stranger .

I saw on T.V a man ate some food that digested into methane gas ,his body sparked a fire through a chemical reaction he then burned to a crisp from the inside out
Its called spontanious human combustion Look up up , many cases all over the world have occured.


As far as organs explosing a relative had his appendix explode as the doctors were removing it. The doctors told him as they opened him up it burst open and show stuff all. Had he been on the table 1 minute later he would have been dead.

lol

 

[mrplunkey]

I'm gonna even go a step further. There's no way the heart could literally explode. Your valves would blow open long before any cardiac tissue ruptured. I was thinking about that this morning and I have no idea why.

 

[stilleto]

do you think an appendix could explode? i dont.

 

[mrplunkey]

do you think an appendix could explode? i dont.

If it were infected it could definitely burst. We're not talking "firecracker" explode, but imagine the worst pimple pop of your life involving 1,000 (or even 10,000) times the volume.

 

[redguru]

Damn you, Chris Hansen!

 

[nimbus]

you make it happen if you're a ninja

 

[chris302001]

I'm gonna even go a step further. There's no way the heart could literally explode. Your valves would blow open long before any cardiac tissue ruptured. I was thinking about that this morning and I have no idea why.

+1 with everyone who said something to the effect of "rupture, but not explode"


Stat doc is probably the best to answer these questions. But it sounds interesting so let's come up with a doomsday scenario and see what he can do.


So let's pretend for a bit and see if there's absolutely no way you could blow a hole in the wall of the left ventricle in a severly hypertensive patient (for shits and giggles lets say 260/210) with Dilated Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Coronary Artery Disease, who's ventricle is plunkin away at, say 400 beats/sec. To make it fun, let's say he's already had some inferior wall damage from earlier ischemic events. Let's say he has pericarditis too from a little ischemia he had this weekend while playing with his grandkids. That'll make that sack nice and fragile too.

Well, it would explode in a sense, IMO. Not C4 McGyver explosions, but it wouldnt simply rupture and seep out. You'd get a helluva flood.

1) A patient with CAD cant handle a ventricular rate >150 without damage. A rate of 500 would lead to necrosis in seconds. That would soften up that already soft wall (previous MI). Oh, but I want his nodal artery to be nice and strong, so he cant have any CAD in the proximal Right Coronary Artery or its first branch, the nodal artery. That will keep the electrical activity of the heart strong. Well, atleast making sure the ventricles dont "lose signal" early in the event.

2) Since he's got dilated hypertrophy from having high blood pressure for so long, his aorta and valves have adapted and toughened over time. The muscle in the heart doesnt cope so well though. It dilates, and stretches out making the wall of the heart even thinner than a normal heart, even though the heart looks bigger than it should be.

3) Wicked high bp

So.....

soft deadish wall + thin wall + thickened calficied valves and main vessels + grim reaper bp + walmart bag for a pericardial sac + V Fib = the Hoover Dam giving way inside your chest.

Of course, theres not that much space in the mediastinum but at those pressures it'll flow for a bit and probably give you a bilateral hemothorax......

 

[chazk]

Diabetic people often loose feeling in the legs doctor locally removed a ladies leg after it exploded she was over 500lbs. Water ( edema ) had filled her legs a infection occured
Being she had nuro logical pain she had no feelings in her legs .Her house keeper did not show up for 2 days the lady was hungry and stepped out of her bed onto her leg the pressure made her leg explode and shit shot out of it.
Being the skin is the largest human organ , her pussy water filled leg exploded under pressure so that is a def case of exploding organ.

 

[Cardinal Slin]

my bladder explodes, not ruptures, after a few litres of beer

 

[Smurfy]

my water bag ruptured but did not explode

 

[nimbus]

pei mei taught you the 5 point palm exploding heart technique?

 

[chazk]

The definition of explode is a chemical reaction cuasing a report .
But it also mentions pressure , as in a boiler exploding under pressure or pressure cuasing a explosion
So it seems if pressure was the cuase or a chemical reaction cuased a loud report ( sound ) then a explosion took place.

Prob for medical purposes anything that does not make the sound and blow into a few piece is just a rupture.
But anything infected and decaying from the inside could cuase pressure to make it explode.

Kinda like a shaken 2 liter soda bottle . When someone takes off the top and yells " it exploded on me "
It prop did not explode just burst open.

But one day a almost empty gallon of milk left in our trash for a week outside made a huge explosion.
The rotting milk expanded . So it covered all three def of a explosion chemical reactions , pressure build up and bursting into a few pieces .

 

[miplank]

this is an odd thread...