Slideshow: Foreign Body Ingestions

This slideshow illustrates cases of foreign body ingestions. Each slide links to the full case report for more details.

A 14-year-old boy presented to an outside urgent care facility after having accidentally swallowed part of the metallic opening mechanism of an aluminum beverage can.

As he laughed, he had accidentally choked on the pieces of the soda can tab. He had been able to cough up the pull-tab but felt the other part go down his throat. He subsequently had felt pain in the throat and a persistent foreign body sensation, and he had been taken to the urgent care facility.

Read the full case report here.

A 23-month-old girl was transferred from a local emergency department (ED) to a metropolitan children’s hospital with concern for foreign body ingestion.

The patient was an otherwise healthy girl who had had an unwitnessed ingestion of several small rare-earth magnetic objects (Bucky Balls) 48 hours before presentation to the ED. The girl had had an apparent choking spell in front of her parents, during which her mother was able to pull two of the magnets out of the girl’s mouth; thereafter, she appeared well without any immediate respiratory distress or feeding difficulties

Read the full case report here.

A 15-year-old girl presented to the emergency department (ED) 1 hour after having swallowed her toothbrush. The patient stated that she had been brushing her teeth and, as she tilted her head back, the toothbrush “fell in.”

She quickly developed throat, midsternal chest, and abdominal pain, which prompted her to come to the ED. She reported no vomiting, gagging, stridor, drooling, or difficulty breathing. Other than intermittent asthma, the patient had no documented medical, surgical, or psychiatric history. In the ED, her vital signs were stable, and physical examination findings were unremarkable.

Read the full case report here.

A 10-year-old boy presented to an allergy and immunology clinic with an 8-month history of daily wheezing and coughing, as well as significant dyspnea after exercise, resulting in exercise limitation. Previously, the boy had been well, with no history of wheezing, and his current symptoms had not been preceded by an illness or a choking episode.

Read the full case report here.

A 17-year-old young man presented to the emergency department shortly after inserting several dozen Buckyballs into his urethra, presumably for self-stimulation purposes. 

Aside from taking dexmethylphenidate for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, his past medical history was unremarkable. 

Read the full case report here.

A 2-year-old boy had worsening, intermittent emesis for the past 5 days. On the day of presentation, he had 10 episodes of green, nonbloody emesis and a fever, temperature 39ºC (102.2ºF). When his symptoms first began, he was evaluated by his primary care practitioner who diagnosed acute otitis media and prescribed amoxicillin.

The symptoms progressed and moderate to severe periumbilical and lower abdominal pain developed. The pain did not seem to radiate to the back or testes. The parents also noticed abdominal distention. The child’s last bowel movement was about 2 days earlier. He had a mild runny nose and cough. There was no history of neck pain or rashes.

Read the full case report here.

A 27-year-old healthy woman presented with acute epigastric pain that had started 1 hour prior to evaluation. She described the pain as being severe and sharp, with no radiation or associated symptoms.

She recalled having accidentally swallowed a plastic straw while showing her 18-month-old son how to drink through a straw several days earlier. 

Read the full case report here.

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