Bowel Obstruction from an Incidentally Ingested Foreign Body

Small bowel obstructions are common surgical presentations that are most often caused by adhesions following abdominopelvic surgeries. However, in patients with no history of abdominal surgical interventions, assessment of the cause of a small bowel obstruction is more complex, and such patients frequently require operative intervention. We present a case of a 65-year-old man who presented with a small bowel obstruction caused by an inadvertent ingestion of a bread tag that was not identified on preoperative imaging. The sharp end of the bread tag had eroded through the small bowel leading to a walled-off perforation of the small bowel. Surgical resection was required.