Fishbone perforation of the gastrointestinal tract in patients with acute abdominal pain: diagnosis using plain film radiography

Most foreign bodies (FBs) in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract pass spontaneously through it. However, 10–20% of patients require endoscopic removal, and approximately 1% will develop perforation of the GI tract requiring surgical intervention. CT is the method of choice for identifying ingested FBs.1 However, because CT scanning can be time consuming, an abdominal plain radiograph (plain film) may be helpful in first-line screening of FBs with specific shapes, such as fish and chicken bones.2 We report 2 cases of GI perforation by a clinically unsuspected fishbone which was detected by …