THIS is the shocking moment a surgeon removes a LIVE eel from a suffering man's stomach after he put it up his backside to cure his constipation.

The stomach-churning clip shows doctors tug at the half-metre slippery fish to free it from their patient's body after cutting him open.

4 The fish is finally pulled out of the man's stomach

4 Medical staff are shocked as it starts to wriggle

Reports say it died shortly after it was removed, however the patient is said to have made a full recovery.

The clip appears to have been shot in China and may be the first footage to emerge from a recent case reported around the world involving a man with constipation.

The patient, 49, told doctors in Guangzhou that he had heard word on the street that his condition could be effectively relieved or even cured by a living eel.

He was hospitalised when the live fish began to wreak havoc on his intestines after he inserted it in his anus, the report said.

Eels have pointed jaws, sharp teeth and a slender body that moves in waves, allowing them to burrow efficiently through sand, mud and pebbles.

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The eel used by the man was said to have a head as large as a ping-pong ball.

One doctor said that when the man arrived at the hospital, his stomach was inflated like an air balloon, causing his chronic pain.

In surgery, they found the animal had broken through the intestines and generated “a mess” in the man’s abdominal cavity, “almost killing him”, the doctor said.

Eels are a very common fish in southern China, available in most local markets.

4 Doctors were stunned when they found the Asian swamp eel Credit: AsiaWire

4 The man admitted he inserted the living eel up his anus Credit: AsiaWire

In 2013, another man in Guangdong province was admitted to hospital after inserting an eel into himself for sexual pleasure.

Earlier this year, a woman was reportedly hospitalised for the same reason.

But the plan turned ugly when the man suffered stomach pain and he was forced to ask doctors for help to remove the slithery eel appearing to measure about half a metre.

The man had originally claimed the eel swam up inside him by itself but later confessed he put it there.

The man had also suffered a punctured pancreas in the drama.