ABDOMINAL ULTRASOUND DETECTING SWALLOWED TOOTHPICK, LÝ VĂN PHÁI, MEDIC MEDICAL CENTER

ABDOMINAL ULTRASOUND DETECTING SWALLOWED TOOTHPICK, Dr LÝ VĂN PHÁI, MEDIC MEDICAL CENTER

31-year-old male patient went to Medic Center as a severe epigastralgia for 3 days after swallowing a bamboo toothpick while drinking water. Endoscopy revealed nothing. But in ultrasound examination with his full of water stomach, a hyperechoic linear structure of 51.8mm length appeared at the wall of duodenum D3 with an end head inside the lumen of D3. The other one was in the peritoneum after perforating out of the wall of D3 without posterior shadowing. There were an edema site of wall of D3 and a mass of non compressible hyperechoic epiploic structure which was surrounding of the outsite end head of the toothpick. No free fluid nor free air were detected in his abdomen by ultrasound. Unfortunatly, MSCT 64 could not confirmed the toothpick, only discribed D3 wall edema, and some free air bubbles into the mesentery. The pain dissolved in 24 hour later so it was unnecessary to perform any surgical procedure for this male patient.

So we had a case of hollow viscus without foreign body which was clearly shown in ultrasound pictures.