Fruit pit obstruction. "The propitious pit.".

Ingestion of fruit pit must be a frequent and innocuous phenomenon, judging from the expected frequency of such occurrences and the relative dearth of medical reports to the contrary. Reported here are four cases in which fruit pits of varied nature completed an otherwise incomplete intestinal obstruction. On of these was in the terminal ileum, with incomplete obstruction due to regional ileitis, in which the offending pit was seen radiologically but was not recognized as such. The other three were in the transverse colon, at the site of annular carcinomatous lesions. The completion of the obstruction by the fruit pits eventuated in earlier symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. In one case, the fruit pits were multiple; in the remainder, they were single.