Bizarre gastrointestinal foreign bodies: Report of two cases

Abstract

Foreign body (FB) ingestion in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is commonly seen among children, alcoholics, mentally retarded individuals, prisoners, drug smugglers, and in people wearing dentures. However, about 80% of them excrete the involved FB safely without any significant complication. Observed complications include intestinal obstruction, perforation, bleeding, or fistula formation. Therefore, we present two cases of an unusual presentation of foreign bodies (FBs) in the GIT. The first case was a 14-month-old boy whose complaint was the inability to swallow; the only physical finding was epigastric tenderness, but chest X-ray revealed a radiopaque FB extending from the chest to the upper abdomen; the second case was a 25-year-old man who accidentally swallowed a toothpick, and this perforated the small intestine. Both cases had emergency laparotomy and the FBs were removed.

Keywords

• Gastrointestinal tract foreign bodies
• intestinal perforation
• nail
• toothpick