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Ingestion of Portland Cement
Kyung Ho Kim1, Jang Young Lee1, Seong Eun Yang2
1Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Eulji University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Background:
The common toxicities of cement are allergic dermatitis, abrasions, and chemical burns, but reports of cement ingestion are rare. In this study, we report a case of successful treatment of cement ingestion using emergency gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Case Report:
An 83-year-old female was admitted to the emergency department with altered mental state and abdominal pain. We assumed that she ingested cement based on her medical history and radiologic examination. A previous report recommended surgical removal with gastric lavage. However, we thought that wet cement is highly alkaline, and gastric lavage is contraindicated. We performed emergency gastrointestinal endoscopy, instead of gastric lavage. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: If a patient ingests cement, the recommendation is to check the status of the upper gastrointestinal tract and remove the cement by emergency gastrointestinal endoscopy as soon as possible.