TY - JOUR PY - 2013// TI - Swallowed magnets and batteries: a dangerous but not unexpected attraction JO - BMJ case reports A1 - Teague, Warwick Jonathan A1 - Vaughan, Elizabeth Mary A1 - McHoney, Merrill A1 - McCabe, Amanda Jayne SP - bcr2013009073 EP - bcr2013009073 VL - 2013 IS - N2 - An 18-month-old boy was witnessed swallowing a cluster of five magnetic toy balls. He was coincidentally noted on plain x-rays to have also recently swallowed a watch battery and a small screw. Initial outpatient management with serial review and x-rays was unsuccessful, and delayed inpatient surgical care by 9 days. Although the child never manifested features of systemic or gastrointestinal upset, emergency laparotomy confirmed a resultant jejunocolic fistula. This case demonstrates how clinical assessment of children who have swallowed magnets separately from each other can be falsely reassuring, and highlights the potential dangers of outpatient management. We recommend children who have swallowed separately >1 magnetic objects (or >1 objects capable of magnetic attraction) be managed as inpatients with active observation and timely foreign body removal. Keywords: Multiple magnet ingestion
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1757-790X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2013-009073 ID - ref1 ER -