Gastrointestinal foreign bodies.

Over a 20 year period 26 patients were admitted because of ingesting foreign bodies. Ten patients, mostly children, remembered swallowing a metallic foreign body. Most of the patients were asymptomatic and were admitted for observation. Sixteen patients underwent operation. The distal large bowel was the area most commonly involved, not the ileocecal region as in the reviews published a number of years ago. Blunt as well as pointed foreign bodies caused bowel perforations, probably through slow pressure necrosis. Most of the patients had signs of localized peritonitis.. Unlike previous studies, roentgenographic studies were found helpful in the preoperative diagnosis.