Surgeons remove 100 pieces of metal – including nails, KNIVES and screws – from man’s stomach
Medics found nails, knifes, screws, nuts, spoon handles, screwdriver head, washer, pebbles, coins and iron wire inside the man
SURGEONS have removed more than 100 pieces of metal from a man's stomach, including knives, nails and screws.
The 52-year-old man with chronic psychosis first presented with a gastric obstruction due to swallowing metal items in May 2012.
Although he was receiving treatment for his mental health he still had a tendency to swallow metal objects.
The obstruction was removed endoscopically - using a flexible tube that is fed along his digestive tract - and the man was sent home.
Eight months later the man, from France, was readmitted with the same symptoms, according to the BMJ case report.
This time he was operated on to remove all of the metal pieces.
Medics found nails, knifes, screws, nuts, spoon handles, a screwdriver head, washer, pebbles, coins and iron wire inside the man.
The man swallowed pieces of metal so frequently that they formed what is called a bezoar - an accumulation of of foreign bodies formed of partially digested or non-digested material in the stomach.
The man was admitted and operated on a further two times between 2013 and 2016 for the same problem.
Then, in December last year, he went to A&E with a fever, nausea and was pale and dehydrated.
This time a piece of metal he had swallowed had pierced his stomach and caused the lining of his abdomen, called the peritoneum, to become inflamed.
Blood tests revealed he was septic and a CT scan showed a foreign mass in his stomach and small intestines.
The patient had to have more surgery to remove the metal objects found in the CT scan.
The patient was referred to behavioural and mental health experts.
The case report notes: "Metal bezoars could be a rare cause of abdominal concern.
"They are generally ingested accidentally in adults, usually in infants, elderly, psychotic patients and prisoners.
"Surgical exploration and extraction is the treatment of choice and thorough exploration of the whole digestive tract is necessary to avoid retained materials.
"Psychiatric follow-up is mandatory to prevent recurrence."
Last week it was reported a man who thought he had cancer actually had a toy traffic cone stuck in his lung 40 years after he inhaled it as a child.
And earlier this year a woman was taken to A&E with a seven centimetre piece of wire from a dental brace lodged in her bowels.
Here's a list of 25 disgusting things American's got stuck inside them in 2016.
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