Abstract
Small-bowel obstruction with bezoars in a gastrectomized patient is rare. A 54-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of upper abdominal pain and nausea which developed 2 days after he ate a lot of persimmons. There was a history of undergoing distal partial gastrectomy for duodenal ulcer when he was 26 years old. Strict examinations revealed that a foreign body caused small bowel obstruction, and conservative treatment was started. However, these symptoms were getting worse, emergency operation being carried out. During surgery a hen's egg-sized foreign body was found in the small intestine about 150cm distal from the Treitz's ligament. The foreign body was removed through enterotomy. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged from the hospital. The foreign body was inferred to be gastric bezoar.
Twenty-eight cases seen in the Japanese literature were also discussed.
