Intestinal obstruction following accidental ingestion of a foam rubber ball

Arruti Peleteiro E, Martínez Melgar JL, Ulla Rocha JL

Foreign object ingestion is a common event during childhood,

though it can also be seen at any age, generally in association

with neurological or psychiatric disturbances. Nevertheless, this

possibility should not be ruled out in people without a suggestive history,

considering that even though most of those foreign objects progress

down the digestive tract without difficulty, a far from negligible

amount are potentially dangerous and may even require an aggressive

therapeutic approach. We present the case of a young woman, with no

past medical or surgical history, who initially presented with several episodes

of abdominal pain that were diagnosed as non-specific, and finally

developed an intestinal occlusion of unknown etiology. Initially, the

iconographic studies did not reveal any cause; a colonoscopy was finally

performed, which was both diagnostic (accidental swallowing of a

foam-rubber ball) and therapeutic.

Arruti Peleteiro E, Martínez-Melgar JL, Ulla Rocha JL