Gas from ice-chips?

[ztaw15]

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So my wife is a nurse, and I am an M1. We usually talk about her interesting patients/situations (or mine, which is rarely since we are in clinic ~2days a month). Well apparently today she had a fairly unhappy post-surgical patient (hysterectomy, bilateral oophorectomy) complaining of "gas". This is to be expected to some degree I understand, since it was laprascopic. The odd thing was that because of all the complaining by the patient my wife asked her manager (also a nurse) to talk to the patient. Well the manager came out and got onto my wife for letting the patient have ice-chips because "they cause gas". Now my first reaction was that this is BS, but I tried looking it up anyway and got nothing.

Anybody ever hear of this, or is this manager just nuts?

 

[Inuranic]

1) Hahahahaha
2) The only way I could see this happening is if patients have a tendency to swallow a lot of air while eating the ice, which is certainly possible. Obviously, more burp-inducing, but it's the only thing I've got.
3) Hahahahaha

 

[illegallysmooth]

Well, yeah. Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. I'm surprised he didn't float away like a balloon.

 

[turkeyjerky]

Well, yeah. Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. I'm surprised he didn't float away like a balloon.

lol, and spontaneously combust

yeah, if the patient meant belching than that's certainly possible (since belching is caused by swallowed air), but if the patient was complaining of flatulence then no way.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I mean, she could've swallowed a chunk of ice big enough to cause a bowel obstruction and not melt before she started having the classic symptoms. It could totally happen!

 

[Disinence2]

Post-Op Illeus

Ive seen some attendings get pretty mad about feeding even ice chips to their patients after surgery without asking them first. Most don't care. Depends on the type of case. I saw it go pretty bad once where the patient had a TAH/BSO plus a small bowel resection, then consumed nearly a full liter of "Ice chips"

It is my understanding that Laparoscopic cases typically cause less post-op Ileus compared with open depending on the extent of the surgery. Also remember that the CO2 used to pressurize the abdominal cavity isn't absorbed into the bowel.

Oh man...surgery....ugh

 

[The Poet Sings]

Well, yeah. Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. I'm surprised he didn't float away like a balloon.

i'm not sure why this typo amused me so much. it is late, i guess...

and excuse my ignorance, but why ice chips? are people not to drink water after surgery? like there is a worry they'll drink too much too quickly but will have to pace themselves if eating ice?

 

[Jolie South]

i'm not sure why this typo amused me so much. it is late, i guess...

and excuse my ignorance, but why ice chips? are people not to drink water after surgery? like there is a worry they'll drink too much too quickly but will have to pace themselves if eating ice?

After abdominal surgery, people have what's called a post-op ileus. Touching the gut during surgery irritates it, and it shuts down temporarily meaning that it won't be able to move digested food through.

Effectively, they have a bowel obstruction. What happens when you fill a pipe that's clogged at one end?

 

[The Poet Sings]

ok thanks for explaining that to me!