Case Report: Intestinal occlusion due to fistulized compressoma from the peritoneal cavity to the colon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: a retained surgical item is a foreign body that becomes lodged within a body cavity or surgical site unintentionally following surgery. The incidence rate of textilomas varies between 1 in 1 000 to 1 in 1 500 intra-abdominal operations. Up to 30% of patients with retained surgical items may be asymptomatic. Retained surgical items, when lodged in some free space of the abdominal cavity, can migrate as a response of the organism to try to get rid of it. The diagnosis of this entity represents a challenge due to the nonspecific nature of its clinical manifestations and the infrequent occurrence of this diagnostic possibility, which is frequently made incidentally. CASE REPORT: A 24-year-old male patient with a history of laparoscopic cholecystectomy converted to open surgery 3 years ago for acute calculous cholecystitis; he presented a 4-month history of colicky abdominal pain located in the right hypochondrium, in addition to semi-liquid diarrheal stools. He was prescribed different medical treatments for two occasions without improvement and exacerbation of the condition with weight loss, abdominal distension, constipation and irradiation of the pain to the left hemiabdomen. Complementary tests showed leukocytosis and neutrophilia. An abdominal CT scan, performed on suspicion of ureteral lithiasis, showed a mass that appeared to be a fecaloma. EVOLUTION: Rectosigmoidoscopy was performed, with the finding of a mass that totally occluded the intestinal lumen at the level of the sigmoid colon. The mass was removed, and turned out to be a surgical compress. Immediately after the rectosigmoidoscopy, the patient reported improvement and was discharged 12 hours after the procedure without complications and with complete resolution of the symptoms. CONCLUSION: retained surgical materials constitute a health problem that affects the safety of the surgical patient, causing serious consequences to the patient's health and increasing the risk of morbidity and mortality. Intra-abdominal retention of compresses and other types of surgical material may not be considered as a clinical suspicion in the first instance, due to the non-specific nature of the clinical picture; however, whenever there is a surgical history and confusing symptomatology, this diagnostic possibility should be taken into account, and can be confirmed by imaging studies.