TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - Twenty-one bust: A case of chemical transformation of an ingested foreign body
JO  - BMJ case reports
A1  - Greer, Nicholas
A1  - Mark, David
A1  - Mulholland, Keith
A1  - Kirk, Stephen
SP  - 200727
EP  - 200727
VL  - 2013
IS  - dec13_1
N2  - The majority of ingested foreign bodies pass of their own accord without causing any adverse impact on the patient, while others present a greater management dilemma. We present a case of a 36-year-old man admitted to the hospital with a 10-day history of colicky abdominal pain following voluntary ingestion of multiple pairs of vinyl gloves. The plain-film abdominal X-ray confirmed small bowel obstruction and gastric bezoar. After failed conservative management he opted for endoscopic retrieval. Following exposure to stomach acid the gloves had lost their structural integrity becoming hard, sharp and brittle. As a result endoscopic removal was abandoned due to the risk of traumatic injury to the oesophagus. A midline laparotomy was performed and the gloves were retrieved via enterotomy. While many foreign bodies are suitable for endoscopic extraction this case demonstrates that the retrieval of vinyl gloves is unlikely to be successful due to significant chemical change.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1757-790X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2013-200727
ID  - ref1
ER  -