A very challenging scenario of 52 ingested toy magnets causing multiple entero-enteric fistulas in a 5 year-old child

Abstract

Foreign body ingestion is commonly seen in paediatrics. Magnets, button batteries and sharp objects can cause life threatening complications. Intestinal obstruction, peritonitis and fistula formation between bowel loops are reported complications to multiple magnets ingestion. We report a case of a 5-year-old who swallowed 52 toy magnets. He presented with peritonitic abdomen which required abdominal exploration, resection of necrotic bowel segments and 6 bowel anastomosis. The postoperative course was uneventful. The earliest report of multiple magnets ingestion was reported from Japan in 1995, which was complicated by bowel perforation.If the magnetic foreign bodies remain in a fixed position on repeated abdominal x-rays, surgical treatment should be considered even if the patient is asymptomatic, because, in such patients, entero-enteric intestinal fistulas are likely to have formed. The ingestion of multiple magnets can lead to life-threatening complications in children. One must have a low threshold for performing diagnostic imaging in children presenting with vague abdominal symptoms if there is a history of potentially ingesting a foreign body, even if unwitnessed.