Here is a brief guide to some unfortunate explosions of a particular type. The details sit quietly in back issues of medical journals. Only occasionally does anyone come to see them. The visitor is, in most cases, either a doctor in sudden need of information or a scholar in search of violent titillation.

BOOM (Italy, 1952) - Unusual Complication in Electrosurgery: Explosion of Gases in the Cecum During Operation of Cecal Fistula, by G Pezzuoli and C Ghiringhelli (published in L'Ospedale Maggiore, September 1952).

BOOM (Spain, 1964) - Pneumatic Explosion of the Cecum in Patients with Carcinoma of the Colon, by N Antonelli and E Borenstein (in Prensa Médica Argentina, October 1964).

BOOM (Germany, 1974) - Intestinal Gas Explosion As a Rare Cause of Traumatic Colon Perforation, by FJ Stucker and H Molzberger (in Chirurg, August 1974).

BOOM (America, 1974) - Explosions of Colonic Gas, by BH Rogers (in the New England Journal of Medicine, November 1974).

BOOM (Denmark, 1978) - Intestinal Explosion During the Use of Diathermy, by NJ Olsen and V Berg (in Ugeskrift for Laeger, July 1978).

BOOM (Japan, 1985) - Gas Explosion During Diathermy Colotomy, by N Shinagawa et al (in the British Journal of Surgery, April 1985).

BOOM (Israel, 1992) - Diathermy-Induced Gas Explosion in the Intestinal Tract, by E Gross et al (in Harefuah, July 1992).

BOOM (Scotland, 1996) - Gas Explosion During Colonic Surgery, by JH De Wilt et al (in the Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, December 1996).

BOOM (France, 2003) - Intestinal Gas Explosion During Operation: A Case Report, by G Bouhours et al (in Annales Françaises d'Anesthésie et de Réanimation, April 2003).

This type of explosion sometimes raises questions. Here are two such: one explicit, the other implied.

BOOM (Query) - Colonic Gas Explosion: Is a Fire Extinguisher Necessary? by JH Bond and MD Levitt (in Gastroenterology, December 1979).

KERSPLAT/KABOOM - Unusual Blast Colonic Injury Due to a Fall, by EO Fashakin and PA Ajayi (in Tropical Gastroenterology, April-June 1991). The authors explain: "Blast injuries are caused by bomb blasts, intracolonic explosion of gases after diathermy, over-enthusiastic bowel insufflation at sigmoidoscopy or by pressure hose applied to the anus. We report the case of a 28-year-old man with an unusual blast injury of the colon following a fall from a colanut tree."

· Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly magazine Annals of Improbable Research (www.improbable.com) and organiser of the Ig Nobel Prize