Medical Must-See: Patient stitched up after swallowing needle
Doctors at Westmead Hospital used a 'unique' operative approach to retrieve the foreign body.
A run-of-the-mill case of foreign body ingestion gave doctors in NSW an opportunity to trial a unique operative retrieval of a sewing needle beyond endoscopic reach.
Their 20-year-old female patient presented with central abdominal pain, having ingested a 4cm-long sewing needle four days earlier.
On examination, she was found to have focal periumbilical tenderness.
Pelvic and abdominal X-rays revealed a 39mm x 1mm metallic object in the right mid abdomen, reported doctors from Sydney’s Westmead Hospital in ANZ Journal of Surgery.
