Published online Dec 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i23.5988
Peer-review started: August 30, 2020
First decision: September 13, 2020
Revised: September 15, 2020
Accepted: September 25, 2020
Article in press: September 25, 2020
Published online: December 6, 2020
Processing time: 95 Days and 20.2 Hours
In recent years, the incidence of magnetic foreign body ingestion has increased rapidly in our hospital. Almost all of the ingested magnetic foreign bodies were magnetic beads. Most of the patients had intestinal perforations and suffered substantial damage.
Obvious differences exist in clinical symptoms between magnetic and non-magnetic foreign body ingestion. We aimed to summarize clinical experiences and optimize the diagnosis and treatment in dealing with this condition.
To summarize the valuable surgical experiences of multiple-magnet ingestion in children, such as no leakage of the intestinal contents in the abdominal cavity, ileus related symptoms and so on.
The experiences of surgeries within the recent 10 years were collected, and the clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis were summarized and analyzed. Several typical cases were selected and discussed.
Through the observational study of 56 cases, we are sure that the most effective way to reduce the increasingly high incidence of injury from magnetic foreign body ingestion is to ban the sale of powerful magnetic toys like buckyballs for minors, and keep children stay far away from the powerful magnetic toys in their living environments. Furthermore, magnetic beads causing intestinal perforation without intestinal content leakage is a discovery that can be used clinically. How to make an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan to reduce the injury on children is an urgent problem to be solved.
The key way to reduce the incidence of magnetic foreign body ingestion is to ban the sale of magnetic toys. Clinicians can try new operation methods and determine the indications of this emergency according to the characteristic that intestinal contents will not leak into the abdominal cavity because the intestines stick together tightly. Meanwhile, additional observation is required to monitor long-term complications.
The direction of the future research is to reduce the incidence of multiple magnet ingestion, relieve the injury to patients, and apply minimally invasive technique in this emergency.