Multiple foreign body swallow by a psychiatric patient presenting as upper gastrointestinal bleeding (Case report)

Abstract

Introduction: Metallic foreign body ingestion is a rare type of bezoar and it could be lethal if untreated in an early incident. Case Presentation: We are reporting a case of a 25-year-old male patient, known schizophrenic patient presenting as upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding caused by massive foreign body swallow. This patient brought to the emergency surgical outpatient department of Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Mekelle University by his mother. At the time of presentation, the patient was suffering from abdominal pain, coffee ground vomiting and tarry stool of one-month duration. The patient claimed to have swallowed multiple coins and broken glasses prior to the onset of his symptoms over the last forty days. Following surgical exploration, we have retrieved 181 different types of items weighing one kilogram from the stomach of the patient. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest amount to be retrieved from the stomach of a patient in Ethiopia. Conclusion: Providing regular follow-up treatment and support to psychiatric patients is important to decrease adverse experiences of the foreign body ingestions especially to schizophrenic patients.