Multiple magnet ingestion resulting in small bowel perforation: a case report

Foreign body ingestion is a common clinical situation that is primarily diagnosed by emergency clinicians. Most foreign bodies can be evacuated without difficulty. Although rare, magnets that reach the lower intestinal tract may cause complications such as intestinal fistula formation, perforation, volvulus or appendicitis. We report herein a two-year-old girl who was admitted to our department 3 days ago with abdominal pain and non-bilious vomiting. Upon admission direct abdominal roentgenogram revealed a foreign body consisting of multiple spheric parts bound together forming a circle in the lower quadrants of the abdomen. Her family, unaware of this ingestion, stated that a magnetic toy matching the object present on the plain radiograph was lost several days ago. Surgical intervention showed a magnetic toy in the proximal part of the ileum causing multiple perforations in the intestinal wall and the neighboring mesentery. The ileal portion containing the magnet toy was seen folded over itself forming a blind loop. The patient was discharged uneventfully in the 7th postoperative day. Our case highlights a well known fact that foreign body ingestion in children may not have eye witnesses and should be taken into consideration when evaluating children with abdominal pain.