Don't ask how this came up...

Let say a person is disembowled due to an accident. When they go back in and surgically put it all back in place, is it they just kind of guess at how long the make each fold and figure the body will sort it all out?

And what happens if the remove lets say 12 feet of your gut? Do your bowels then have extra room and this can get tangled?

Completely random hoosegow question but this is stuff that can keep me up at night.

Yeah, you kinda just stuff it all back in there and the body will figure it out. But, it's all connected to this thing called mesentery. Which is like fatty connective tissue that houses blood vessels for the intestines. That can provide a guide to help you make sure you're not twisted when you're putting it back in.

And if you remove a bunch of bowel, I don't think it makes it more prone to getting twisted on itself, because of the mesentery. However, if the mesentery is damaged, it can increase the risk of an internal hernia. Basically some bowel squeezes through a hole in the mesentery - this happens sometime with people who have gastric bypass done.

Another thing that can happen following significant abdominal surgery is scar tissue called adhesions. These adhesions increase the risk of a bowel obstruction. Because instead of everything sliding smoothing over itself, bits will start sticking to one another and can eventually scar down to where it's difficult to pass beyond a certain point.

The outdoor board knows stuff but the Health & Fitness boards knows smart stuff.

Thanks big truck - that is kind of what I thought but wasn't sure. I can't get a hose to lay right without it getting tangled. Figured I'd do the same with bowels.

After cleaning a bunch of animals, I kind of wondered how that would all go if you just stuffed the bowels back in.