• Theodoros Syrakos, Emmanouil Zacharakis, Polichronis Antonitsis, Evangelos Zacharakis, Constantinos Spanos, G Georgantis, and Dimitrios Kiskinis.
• 4th Academic Surgical Unit, General Hospital Papageorgiou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Med Princ Pract. 2008 Jan 1;17(4):276-9.

ObjectiveThe aim of our study was to demonstrate our experience regarding the surgical treatment of complications after foreign body ingestion.Subject And MethodsFrom 1997 to 2005, we treated 16 adult patients (mean age 44.8 years, range 21-77), who presented with complications after foreign body ingestion.ResultsThe complications treated were perforation-peritonitis: n = 7 (44%), intra-abdominal abscess formation: n = 5 (31%), upper gastrointestinal bleeding: n = 3 (19%) and inflammatory mass formation: n = 1 (6%) patient. The diagnosis was made intra-operatively in 13 (81.3%) of the cases. The commonest anatomical position of the perforation was the large bowel, in 7 (43%) of the cases. Bony food parts were the commonest foreign bodies accidentally swallowed, in 9 (56%) patients. The median hospital stay was 7 days (2-18), while no death occurred in the postoperative period among the patients of the study. The postoperative morbidity rate was 22.2%.ConclusionsThe most common complication after foreign body ingestion was the perforation of the gastrointestinal tract. The risk of perforation was higher when sharp foreign bodies were ingested. The pre-operative diagnosis was difficult, and it was usually achieved intra-operatively.(c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

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