Missed Foreign Body Ingestion in a Cognitively Impaired Adult: A Case Report

The diagnosis of foreign body ingestion is often clear from the history; diagnostic difficulty and delay in management arise when patients and carers are unable to give a clear history of ingestion. We present the case of a cognitively impaired adult who was misdiagnosed with gastritis when they had, in fact, been suffering from vomiting secondary to foreign bodies impacted in the oesophagus. Timely endoscopy in accordance with the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) guidelines prevented the potentially significant complications associated with foreign body ingestion.