19-year-old girl hospitalized after swallowing tongue piercing

News from the Department of Gastroenterology Emergency, 108 Central Military Hospital, last week doctors received and treated many patients with foreign objects stuck in their stomachs while eating.

A typical case is that of a 19-year-old girl who was eating when her tongue ring suddenly fell out with the food she swallowed into her stomach. The doctor had to spend nearly two hours performing an endoscopy to remove the foreign object. The patient was admitted to the Emergency Department of Gastroenterology, 108 Central Military Hospital, two hours after swallowing the tongue ring. An abdominal CT scan showed a 2 cm metal foreign object in the patient's stomach, suspected of piercing the stomach wall.

The tongue ring was removed from the stomach of a 19-year-old girl by endoscopy. (Photo: BVCC).

According to Dr. Ngo Thi Hoai, Deputy Head of the Department of Gastroenterology Emergency, the foreign object when moving can cause a perforation in the digestive tract, so the doctors decided to perform an emergency endoscopy to remove the foreign object even though the patient had just eaten two hours ago and the food had not yet been digested.

After about 90 minutes of pumping water into the stomach and sucking out the food, the doctor was finally able to remove the foreign object.

Case 2 is a 76-year-old man who, while eating chicken, swallowed a piece of bone, causing a feeling of choking and severe pain behind the sternum. His family immediately admitted him to the hospital. The doctor decided to perform an emergency gastroscopy, and found a foreign object, a chicken bone, stuck horizontally in the esophagus. At this location, when the bone is pulled out, it is very easy to perforate the esophagus, penetrate large blood vessels near the heart, or fall into the airway. After 35 minutes of choosing the alternating method of grasping, the piece of bone was removed without causing any damage to the patient.

Dr. Hoai said that choking on foreign objects in the digestive tract can occur when eating and talking at the same time, such as chicken bones or fish bones; sometimes due to the removal and installation of dentures in the elderly or tongue rings in young people. Sometimes due to swallowing such as coins, toothbrushes, safety pins, etc.

Patients should go to a medical facility as soon as possible to remove the foreign object. If not removed promptly, the foreign object can puncture the digestive tract, and in more serious cases, can cause infection, mediastinal or intra-abdominal abscess, peritonitis, and severe complications that can be life-threatening.

When eating, people should chew thoroughly, eat slowly, and speak only after finishing eating. At the same time, tongue piercings should not be worn because of aesthetics and safety. When swallowing a foreign object, absolutely do not handle it at home but go to a medical facility immediately.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/nuot-phai-khuyen-luoi-thieu-nu-19-tuoi-nhap-vien-192250303110317447.htm