While eating 'this seafood,' he developed a hole in his intestine and severe abdominal pain... What did the 60-year-old man swallow?

It is safer to remove the legs when eating shrimp. A case of a man in his 60s from Taiwan who swallowed a shrimp leg unknowingly and developed a perforation (hole) in his colon was reported in an international journal.

According to surgical medical staff at the Taiwan Taichung City Armed Forces General Hospital, a 69-year-old man, Mr. A, visited the hospital due to persistent abdominal pain lasting for four months. Mr. A had experienced upper abdominal pain after eating unpeeled fried shrimp four months ago, but it subsided after three days, so he neglected it. However, he experienced recurrent upper abdominal pain afterward. Two days before visiting the hospital, his fever rose to 38.2°C, and his abdominal pain worsened, prompting an urgent visit to the emergency room. A CT scan revealed a linear object over 2 cm in the colon area. It was ultimately determined that a perforation had occurred in the intestine due to the foreign body, and an abscess had formed. The medical team performed surgery to remove the abscess and the foreign object. Upon examining the removed foreign body, it was identified as a shrimp leg approximately 2.6 cm long. Mr. A was discharged three days after the surgery without any complications.

Medical staff stated, "Although perforation of the gastrointestinal tract due to foreign body ingestion is rare, it is mostly caused by dentures, fish bones, chicken bones, toothpicks, or cocktail skewers," and added, "There have been no reported cases of intestinal perforation caused by shrimp legs, so this is the first." They continued, "Gastrointestinal perforation caused by foreign bodies can sometimes be treated with antibiotics alone, but the most basic treatment is surgical removal of abscesses and foreign bodies," and said, "Mr. A also recovered quickly due to laparoscopic drainage and removal of the foreign body."

This case was published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.

<Source: Health Chosun>