A case of acute appendicitis caused by a denture

Abstract

A 46-year-old woman accidentally swallowed a denture during a meal. She presented at our hospital with abdominal pain, tenderness, and peritoneal signs in the right lower-quadrant the nest day. Plain abdominal radiography revealed a metallic foreign body in the right lower abdomen, and abdominal computed tomography showed a foreign body in the appendix and inflammatory changes around the appendix. An emergency operation was performed after the diagnosis of acute appendicitis caused by the migration of the denture into the appendix. We found that the appendix was swollen and inflamed but not perforated. Therefore, appendectomy was performed. A denture was found in the resected specimen, according to the preoperative diagnosis. The histological diagnosis was gangrenous appendicitis. Appendicitis due to migration of a foreign body into the appendix is rare. We report this case and a review of previously reported cases in the literature.