Teenager was left vomiting with excruciating pain, her fallopian tube twisted 4 times
In a shocking case, a teenager was left vomiting in severe pain after her fallopian tubes twisted four times inside her body.
The 18-year-old visited the doctor after having abdominal pain, nausea and being sick for three days and upon examination doctors realised she had tenderness and swelling over her right ovary.
The girl described her pain to be increasing every 15 minutes and she had a low heart rate and slightly high temperature.
An ultrasound revealed what was thought to be a cyst.
The medics opted for transvaginal ultrasound - which involves inserting a camera into the womb through the vagina and the imaging confirmed the cyst, which was bleeding and blocking her fallopian tube - a condition known as hydrosalpinx.
The patient was monitored on the gynaecology ward at Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis hospital in Amsterdam, and kept on painkillers for a couple of days, however her condition worsened.
Doctors were forced to perform exploratory surgery to determine the cause of her pain and it was then they realised that she had an ovarian torsion.
Her fallopian tubes had twisted.
The cause of ovarian torsion is not known, but it is thought to be linked to vigorous sexual activity.
However, the girl told doctors she was a virgin.
By this time her tubes had become necrotic - started to rot - and her right ovary was slightly enlarged.
Doctors were able to surgically untwist her fallopian tube and save the whole thing.
In 38 day and 90 day follow ups the patient appeared fine and had not suffered any other symptoms.
The case which was written about in BMJ saw Dr Tjitske R Zaat write that isolated torsion of the fallopian tube due to hydrosalpinx [blocked tube] is a very rare condition.
Fallopian torsion can affect a woman's fertility, in serious cases and if the tube rots away it may no longer be viable to connect the ovary to the womb, meaning a woman may struggle to conceive.
Women who have suffered a fallopian tube torsion before is also at greater risk of ectopic pregnancy, a condition where a fertilised egg implants itself in the tube rather than the womb.
