A man's colon burst after his 'perverted' friends put a compressed air pump into his anus and inflated it, a bizarre medical report has revealed.

The 30-year-old was taken to hospital after the horrifying prank left him needing his entire bowel removed because of a 'rectal blowout', an injury caused by air pressure rising so high inside the rectum that it explodes.

And his case, although extraordinary, wasn't unique – doctors reported it in a journal article alongside reports of two other men with similar injuries.

One had pressurised air sprayed into his backside in an alleged accident, while another suffered the agony at the hands of robbers whom he tried to stop.

The experts warned air can be as damaging as solid objects and industrial machinery should be treated with care because of its dangers.

Doctors warned people need to be properly educated about the dangers of using industrial machinery such as air compressors because they can produce levels of pressure 100 times higher than what would be considered safe for a colonoscopy (Pictured: The type of air compressor which caused the injuries and, left, part of the one which injured the man whose 'perverted friends' turned it on him)

Doctors from the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh wrote the report.

They said the men suffered high-pressure injuries which were normally 'confined to battlefields'.

Life-changing injuries sustained by the men came as a warning of the dangers of misusing industrial machinery.

The air flow produced by an air compressor, the report authors wrote, are at least 100 times higher than what would be considered safe for a colonoscopy.

The man whose friends subjected him to the injury had 'multiple colonic perforations' and doctors found faecal matter among his other internal organs.

HOW CAN COMPRESSED AIR DAMAGE INTERNAL ORGANS? In a paper in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, doctors explained how air pressurised beyond a certain point 'forms a column that acts like a solid body'. A sudden inrush of air into the body can lead to injuries called barotrauma. Barotrauma, although rare, occurs when the pressure inside a bodily tissue is higher than the area outside it, which causes it to burst. Air pumped into the anus, for example, would travel straight into the bowel and inflate the organ like a balloon until it couldn't withstand the pressure any more and ruptured. If air was pumped in the same manner into the mouth it could have the same effect on the stomach or lungs. Researchers wrote in a paper in the Journal of Medical Case Reports: 'The amount of injury may vary from mucosal ulceration to full-thickness blowout, depending on air pressure, air flow velocity, anal resting pressure, and the distance between the source and anus. 'Management ranges from repair or resection with proximal enterostomy, because multiple other injuries may perforate later and have a delayed presentation.' Advertisement

The report said the injury was 'caused by his perverted friends who put the nozzle of an air pipe (tire air pump) into his anus and inflated it'.

In a separate case study, a 34-year-old man who worked at a petrol pump was taken to hospital with similar injuries after trying to stop a burglary.

He had what doctors called a 'rectal blowout' and needed most of his colon removed and a colostomy bag fitted.

The report said he had suffered 'an alleged compressed air insult by robbers while thwarting the robbery. The robbers had thrust the compressed air nozzle into his anus'.

And in the third report, a 24-year-old man went to a hospital emergency department with an 'alleged history of accidental injury to the anus by compressed air jet'.

The man said the air nozzle was about 25cm (9.8 inches) away from his backside and was only on for a second.

He had a swollen, painful torso and the inside of his abdomen was covered with faeces and blood, the doctors said.

Surgeons had to remove part of his intestine because of damage caused by the incident.

'Education regarding such machines and their safe use must be encouraged because most of these cases are accidental and due to ignorance,' wrote the doctors, led by Dr Lovenish Bains.

Air, the experts said, could be just as damaging as a solid object.

Highly pressurised air, they added, 'forms a column that acts like a solid body, forcing open the anal sphincter.

The medics said: 'It takes only one or two [seconds] to deliver enough pressurized air to cause major damage.'

The research was published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.