A CASE OF GASTROINTESTINAL FOREIGN BODIES OF SEVEN SEWING NEEDLES

Abstract

The case is a 49-year-old female with a history of depression. She underwent a checkup at this hospital for the chief complaint of abdominal pain and a total of seven pointed foreign bodies were noted in an abdominal X-ray exam, so the patient was diagnosed with foreign bodies in the digestive tract and admitted on the same day. During admittance, findings of digestive perforation were not noted and several days were thought to have lapsed since swallowing, so the patient was first given nothing by mouth and the course observed. Afterwards, the policy was to at leisure endoscopically and surgically remove the foreign bodies. Lower and upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy was performed on the fourth day of admittance and lower gastrointestinal tract endoscopy was performed on the eleventh day of admittance; a total of four foreign bodies were removed. One body was naturally eliminated on the fourth day of admittance. However, the remaining two lodged in the intestinal tract, so they were removed surgically on the seventeenth day of admittance. In the current case, a laparotomy could not be avoided, although when cases of foreign bodies in the digestive tract are encountered, the site of foreign bodies should be accurately essessed upon first examination. When even sharp foreign bodies can be removed endoscopically, endoscopic removal should be actively attempted.