A case of agar besoar treated with endoscopic treatment

Abstract

63 years old man visited our hospital with a chief complaint of tarry stool. We recognized gastric bezoar and gastric ulcer by upper endoscopy. The gastric ulcer was cured by conservative treatment without endoscopic treatment. With a detailed dietary history, it has been revealed that he took in a pack of agar (40g) , and so the bezoar is believed to be “agar bezoar”. As the bezoar on this case was relatively soft, it was possible to crush and remove it by endoscopic measure. Since temperature to be dissolved (melting point) for agar is higher than body temperature once it got set, the bezoar may have been formed by that reason. As agar bezoar reports are few, we report our successful endoscopic treatment experienced in a precious case with review of the relevant literature.