A plastic bezoar causing bowel obstruction: A case of table cover ingestion

A bezoar is an indigestible food or other material within the gastrointestinal tract. It can be ingested intentionally or accidentally. The small bowel bezoar prevalence ranges between 0.4 % and 4 %, and the prevalence is less than 0.5 % for gastric bezoars. There are different types of bezoars, but the mention of a plastic bezoar rarely appears in the literature. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a plastic bezoar in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A 58-year-old woman was admitted for acute kidney injury, and while working her up, it was discovered that she had a possible foreign body on computerized tomography scan. As a result, she underwent exploratory laparotomy with the findings of plastic foreign objects identified 90 cm from the ileocecal valve and other objects identified in the stomach. The impaction of these materials often occurs in narrow areas such as the lower esophagus, duodenum, ileocecal valve or even the anus. In this unique case, two points of impaction were noted: the first was in the small bowel and the second point in the stomach. The approach to such cases could be Endoscopic versus surgical or even chemical dissolution as a choice of treatment is dependent on multiple factors. The approach to these cases is multidisciplinary and depends on the availability of services and resources at the treating hospital. Reporting such cases helps in managing challenging situations. Additionally, a psychiatric assessment is a crucial step.