Clinical experience summary of surgical treatment abdominal gastrointestinal foreign body in children / 国际外科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To summarize the clinical experience of surgical treatment abdominal gastrointestinal foreign body in children, thus to provide a theoretical basis for clinical decision-making.Methods:The clinical data, including age distribution, clinical manifestations, surgical treatment strategy and prognosis, from 60 children with abdominal gastrointestinal foreign body treated by operation in Children's hospital of Hu′nan Province from January 2015 to June 2020, were retrospectively analyzed. Among the 60 children, 38 males and 22 females, with a median age of 2.9 years. Observation data included the type and location of foreign bodies in the digestive tract, clinical manifestations and surgical methods, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospital stay. The following-up time was 6 months to 2 years by telephone or clinic. The short/long-term complications was observed.Results:Children under 3 years old accounted for 56.7%. Types of foreign bodies included magnetic foreign bodies, sharp objects[paper clips, nails, screws, fish bone and others, etc], crystal ball, jujube pit, gastric hair stone, batteries and badminton holder. The foreign bodies were mainly located in stomach and small intestine. Abdominal pain and vomiting were the most common symptoms. The patients of foreign body with long residence time had peritonitis such as fever and abdominal pain, among 21 cases were combined with gastrointestinal perforation. There were varieties kind of operaion methods, including gastrointestinal incision and foreign bodies removal( n=22), appendectomy and foreign bodies removal( n=7), repair of gastrointestinal perforation( n=6), intestinal resection and anastomosis( n=17), intestinal resection plus enterostomy( n=5)but whose fistula was closed after 3 months, lateral wall of rectum repair( n=3). Fifty-two patients underwent common open abdomen operation, 8 patients underwent laparoscopic operation. The operating time was(93.5±19.3) min. Intraoperative blood loss was(20.2±4.3) mL. The postoperative hospitalization was 13(5, 19) d. The postoperative complications occurred in 3 patients who were nonoperative treatment recovery. Conclusions:Magnetic foreign body, sharp foreign body, crystal ball, jujube nucleus and corrosive foreign body are the main causes of digestive tract obstruction and perforation in children. Individualized operation plan should be selected as soon as possible according to the number of foreign bodies, retention position and whether or not digestive tract perforation.