Medical Must-See: Patient stitched up after swallowing needle

Doctors at Westmead Hospital used a 'unique' operative approach to retrieve the foreign body.
Sewing needle retrieved from small bowel using atraumatic grasper, with small enterotomy made using cutting diathermy.

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.