Large Bowel Perforation due to Excessive Bran Ingestion

Abstract

Specific complications resulting from the use of unprocessed bran in the management of large bowel malfunction are rare. A patient is described in whom perforation of the large bowel occurred as a result of symptomatic treatment of constipation with excessive amounts of unprocessed bran, without investigation of the large bowel, in the presence of a carcinoma of the sigmoid colon. This complication of bran therapy has not been reported previously in the English literature.