Abstract

Introduction: The ingestion of foreign bodies is usually accidental and asymptomatic, it is observed more frequently in patients with psychiatric diseases, children and older adults, being able to cause gastric perforation in 1% of cases.

Clinical case: A 70-year-old male patient who comes to the emergency due to severe pain located in the epigastrium, with the presence of a palpable, painful mass with irregular edges.

Discussion: the preoperative diagnosis of hollow viscera perforation by a foreign body must take into account the epidemiological history, directed interrogation, physical examination and paraclinical studies to allow its differentiation with other medical or surgical entities, allowing the appropriate preoperative and intraoperative management of the patient.

Conclusion: In spite of the infrequent, the perforation of hollow viscera by foreign body should be a differential diagnosis to be considered by the general surgeon.

Keywords

epigastrium, intraoperative management, psychiatric diseases, asymptomatic