6 months of pain, 'carrying' a lump of chewing gum in the stomach without knowing it

Six months ago, a patient accidentally swallowed chewing gum. Recently, he has had unpleasant symptoms, especially frequent bloating.

On the morning of October 23, at Yersin Clinic (HCMC), doctors immediately received and performed a very special colonoscopy surgery. The patient was Mr. Nguyen Thanh T., born in 1987, admitted to the hospital with persistent symptoms lasting for many months such as: abdominal pain, bloating, severe abdominal distension, difficulty defecating and bloody stools.

Mr. T. was assigned to undergo a colonoscopy. The results that the endoscopist observed surprised everyone: in the left colon area, there was a large, ivory-colored, tough foreign object that was firmly attached to the colon wall and could not be flushed away. This mass was about 5 cm in diameter, narrowing the lumen relatively.

The foreign object removed was a rolled up piece of chewing gum, estimated to be about 5 cm in size.

Photo: BSCC

6 months "carrying" a candy block in the stomach

After removing the foreign object through endoscopy, everyone was surprised when the foreign object removed was a rolled up piece of chewing gum, estimated to be about 5 cm in size. Immediately after the foreign object was removed, patient T. said that the symptoms of bloating and abdominal pain had significantly reduced.

Investigation of medical history, Mr. T. said that he almost did not have the habit of chewing gum, except for one time nearly 6 months ago when he "accidentally" chewed and swallowed a rather large amount of gum... offered by a nephew. In the past 3 months, he has had unpleasant symptoms, especially frequent bloating.

Doctor Tran Quoc Vinh examines a patient

Photo: Q.TRAN

According to Dr. Tran Quoc Vinh, Department of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (Yersin International Clinic): Chewing gum causing intestinal obstruction is usually only recorded in children. This is a rare occurrence of this foreign body in adults.

When swallowed, chewing gum is not digested and moves through the digestive system very slowly, taking at least 40 hours to be excreted. Mr. T's case was particularly serious when the gum got stuck and "resided" in the colon for nearly... 6 months, causing relative obstruction and leading to prolonged symptoms.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/6-thang-chiu-dau-ganh-khoi-keo-cao-su-trong-bung-ma-khong-biet-185251022152243508.htm