The key facts
- An 80-year-old resident of Primorsky Krai accidentally swallowed a removable dental prosthesis and did not seek medical help for a week
- The prosthesis with sharp edges damaged the mucosa and posed a risk of esophageal perforation
- Doctors removed the object endoscopically with an 'alligator with a rat tooth' instrument; the patient was discharged
The pensioner waited for a week, hoping his 'stomach would handle it on its own'
Doctors at Vladivostok Clinical Hospital No. 1 removed a dental prosthesis from the digestive tract of an 80-year-old man, who had accidentally swallowed it seven days before seeking help. This was reported by the Ministry of Health of Primorsky Krai. All that time, the pensioner endured the pain, hoping the foreign object would pass on its own, and only then went to the emergency department complaining of pain in the upper abdomen.
Risk of esophageal perforation
Examination showed that the large prosthesis could not pass naturally. According to the regional health ministry, its sharp edges damaged the mucosa and posed a real risk of esophageal perforation — a rupture or the formation of a through hole in the wall of the organ. Gazeta.Ru, citing the regional health ministry, adds that the prosthesis was pressing its sharp edge directly against the wall of the stomach.
Surgery and discharge
Specialists from the endoscopy department performed the procedure and removed the foreign object using a grasping instrument that medics call the 'alligator with a rat tooth'. According to the Primorsky Krai health ministry, the procedure was carried out without additional damage to the mucosa. The patient's condition improved, and he was discharged from the hospital. Gazeta.Ru also notes that the patient is now feeling well.
Similar cases and editorial comment
The publications also cite other recent cases of swallowed foreign objects: according to Gazeta.Ru, earlier a two-year-old girl swallowed a venomous spider and spent ten days in intensive care in a coma, and in Kamchatka a teenager was hospitalized after swallowing a compass needle. Life.ru, in turn, recalls a case in Kirov Region, where doctors at the Urzhum Central District Hospital saved a 12-year-old schoolboy who fell onto metal rebar: the rod entered his body through the groin area and stopped about a centimeter from his heart. The Primorsky Krai case shows that trying to 'tough out' a swallowed large object for weeks is dangerous: as the health ministry's report indicates, the sharp edges of the prosthesis had already damaged the mucosa and could have led to organ rupture, so seeking medical help promptly when such symptoms appear is essential.
