Spectacular laparoscopic and open surgery to remove 27 magnets from the stomach of a 2-year-old child

A two-year-old girl in Dong Nai province swallowed 27 magnets from a children's toy, causing perforations in her intestines and stomach. Doctors had to perform emergency endoscopy, laparoscopic surgery, and open surgery to remove all the magnets.

Two-year-old girl suffers perforated intestines and stomach after swallowing 27 magnets from a building block toy - Photo: AB

On the evening of February 11th, Dong Nai Children's Hospital announced that they had successfully treated a young girl who swallowed 27 magnets, causing perforations in her intestines and stomach.

Previously, a 2-year-old girl, D.KA (residing in Long Binh ward, Bien Hoa city), was brought to the hospital by her family for treatment due to abdominal pain, suspected of having swallowed a foreign object. Two days prior, she complained of abdominal pain around her navel, with only occasional mild pain, so her family didn't pay much attention to it.

On the evening of February 9th, the child's mother accidentally discovered that the child had swallowed something unknown, so she took her child to the hospital for examination the following morning.

Through ultrasound and X-ray imaging, doctors observed a very bright, radiopaque foreign object in the child's intestines, so the child was admitted to the hospital. That same afternoon, February 9th, doctors scheduled an emergency gastroscopy for the child.

X-ray revealed a radiopaque foreign body in the intestine - Photo: AB

The child then underwent emergency endoscopy in the operating room. Doctors discovered 11 magnets in the stomach, arranged vertically and stuck to the underside of the stomach lining.

The surgery successfully removed 10 pills, but the last one was stuck so tightly in the stomach lining that it could not be removed. Therefore, the doctor decided to switch to laparoscopic surgery to examine the entire abdominal cavity.

The magnet was removed from the girl's intestines - Photo: AB

The laparoscopic surgery revealed a clean abdomen with no magnet detected. However, a section of the small intestine was very tightly adhered and could not be pulled out. Therefore, the surgical team decided to switch to open surgery once again.

During open surgery, the doctor separated the tightly adhered section of the intestine and discovered magnets and the first perforation through the bowel. This section of the bowel contained many magnets arranged in a vertical line and protruding outside the intestine. The doctor removed eight magnets from the small intestine and sutured the perforation.

Next, the doctor proceeded to open the stomach to search for the remaining magnet and was surprised to find that it was still stuck to a section of the small intestine near the duodenum. When the two magnets were separated, the doctor discovered two more perforations in the back of the stomach and in the section of the small intestine near the duodenum.

Through these two punctures, the surgical team removed eight more square magnets (each side approximately 3mm). After suturing the two punctures, a post-operative X-ray revealed no other foreign objects.

Dr. Trang said this was a "special" surgery because it involved emergency endoscopy, laparoscopic surgery, and open surgery. The combined surgery was successfully completed after 3 hours of effort by the entire medical team.

"Currently, the baby's health is stable. Although there is still pain at the incision site, the abdomen is not distended, there is no fever, bowel movements are normal, and the baby can be discharged in about a week," said Dr. Trang.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ngoan-muc-ca-mo-noi-soi-va-ca-mo-ho-lay-27-vien-nam-cham-trong-bung-be-2-tuoi-2025021119103352.htm