Do foreign bodies do much harm in the stomach and may they be safely removed?

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Foreign Bodies Swallowed

Q. Do foreign bodies do much harm in the stomach and may they be safely removed?

A. Small coins, buttons, and other round objects, generally create no very great disturb­ance if they reach the stomach, as they usually do. Much unnecessary alarm is often felt when articles of this kind have been swallowed. Even pins and needles are generally successfully passed through the intestine if they reach the stomach. The intestine shows marvelous intelli­gence in dealing with these sharp objects. Pro­fessor Roger has shown by experiments upon animals that when a pin is placed in the intes­tine with the point downward and sticking into the intestinal wall, the intestine promptly turns the pin over, giving the head a down-stream di­rection, thus preventing penetration of the in­testine. When any sharp or angular object has been swallowed which may possibly injure the stomach or intestines, the danger of injury may be frequently lessened by giving large quanti­ties of potatoes and other bulky vegetables, so as to distend the stomach and bowels and thus give plenty of room for the passage of the for­eign body.

When the substance swallowed is of a metallic character, its location may easily be determined by means of the x-ray. Frequently such bodies are discharged from the bowels without their escape being noticed. In such cases the x-ray examination will render great service by removing cause for further anxiety.

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