Male patient L (29 years old, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) came to Xuyen A General Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) for a dull abdominal pain. A week before being admitted to the hospital, Mr. L had dull epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting, and chest heaviness behind the sternum.
Doctors performed an endoscopy of the esophagus, stomach and duodenum using a flexible tube and discovered that the foreign object was a bamboo toothpick. One end of the bamboo toothpick was inserted into the wall of the duodenum, causing a perforation of the duodenum, creating an abscess measuring 10-20mm in size, with white pus flowing out. Thus, the patient went to the doctor and discovered that the bamboo toothpick had punctured the duodenum.
Using specialized tools, doctors removed a toothpick about 12cm in size and treated the abscess in the duodenum. Mr. L no longer had stomach pain, could eat and drink normally, and was discharged from the hospital.
Not only Mr. L, Xuyen A General Hospital has treated many cases of people who were hospitalized due to swallowing bamboo toothpicks. Some people were promptly diagnosed and treated, but many cases only came to the hospital when they had symptoms of dull abdominal pain and went for an examination and endoscopy to discover that the bamboo toothpick had punctured the duodenum and stomach.
Doctor Truong Ngoc Nha - Head of Endoscopy Department, Xuyen A General Hospital said that cases of swallowing sharp foreign objects such as toothpicks, fish bones, etc., if not detected promptly, can lead to serious infections and be life-threatening.
Foreign objects have sharp shapes, so when moving in the intestine, they can easily get stuck in the intestinal wall, perforating the intestinal wall, causing many unpredictable complications. In severe cases, the perforation can progress to generalized peritonitis, affecting life or leaving many sequelae later.
Therefore, doctors advise people not to hold toothpicks in their mouths because they may accidentally swallow them. If they accidentally swallow a toothpick, they should quickly go to the hospital for examination, have a gastrointestinal endoscopy to remove the toothpick as soon as possible, or have surgery when indicated.
