Citation

Paul SP, Harper S, Tuten P, Harries S, Kane M. Nurs. Child. Young People 2015; 28(8): 15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, RCN Publishing)

DOI

10.7748/ncyp.27.8.15.s21

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Foreign body ingestions in children are a common reason for clinical consultations. It is estimated that up to 40% of foreign body ingestions go unnoticed, most passing through the gastrointestinal tract and get defecated. Where signs and symptoms of foreign body ingestion exist, they can be vague, posing a diagnostic dilemma. While coins are the most commonly swallowed objects, there has been an increase in the ingestion of more hazardous items.

Rare earth (neodymium) magnet ingestion has been reported as a serious health problem in the United States (North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) 2013 , Talvard et al 2015). Swallowing a single magnet is unlikely to pose problems once it has traversed through the oesophagus, so long as there is no history of concurrent ingestion of other metallic objects.

However, when multiple magnets are swallowed, they may be attracted to one another while in adjacent bowel loops and the opposed tissue lying between the two magnets may suffer pressure necrosis, perforation and fistula formation, and cause volvulus and obstruction (Abbas et al 2013, NASPGHAN 2013 ). This typically presents with abdominal pain eight to 24 hours post-ingestion, by which time there may already be significant damage to the bowel wall.

Perforation may lead to potentially life-threatening complications if the ingestion remains undiagnosed


Keywords: Multiple magnet ingestion

Language: en