Retrieval of an Unusual Foreign Body

Foreign body (FB) ingestion represents a common presenting complaint of the incarcerated patient population treated at Larkin Community Hospital (LCH). These patients find an array of different objects to ingest, and some of these objects represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Batteries, specifically, are a FB that may cause significant injuries if ingested, and thus urgent attention is required. The effects of swallowing small batteries are well documented in the literature. This is not the case for more complex electronic devices that contain a battery, such as a cell phone. One such example is described in a case where a 44-year-old male inmate ingested a small cell phone 12 days prior to arrival at LCH. This patient presented with minimal signs or symptoms on physical exam. The phone was removed by endoscopy under monitored sedation by the anesthesia and gastroenterology teams with surgery on standby. This case demonstrates the need for removal before the patient becomes symptomatic, as well as the interdisciplinary co-operation between general surgery and gastroenterology required to retrieve complicated battery-containing FBs, such as a phone, from the gastrointestinal tract following ingestion. This case also demonstrates that a complex object such as a phone may remain in the stomach for an extended time without being digested enough to cause severe symptoms under the special circumstances seen in this case.