Foreign Bodies in the Abdominal Area: Review of the Literature

Nastoulis, Evangelos; Karakasi, Maria-Valeria; Alexandri, Maria; Thomaidis, Vasileios; Fiska, Aliki; Pavlidis, Pavlos

doi:10.14712/18059694.2019.130

Acta Medica > Archive > 2019, Vol. 62 > Issue 3 > Foreign Bodies in the Abdominal Area:…

Acta Med. 2019, 62: 85-93

https://doi.org/10.14712/18059694.2019.130

Foreign Bodies in the Abdominal Area: Review of the Literature

Evangelos Nastoulis^a, Maria-Valeria Karakasi^a,b, Maria Alexandri^a, Vasileios Thomaidis^c, Aliki Fiska^c, Pavlos Pavlidis^a

^aLaboratory of Forensic Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, School of Medicine, GR 68100 Dragana, Alexandroupolis, Greece
^bThird University Department of Psychiatry, AHEPA University General Hospital – Department of Mental Health, Aristotle University – Faculty of Medicine, GR 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
^cDepartment of Anatomy, Democritus University of Thrace, School of Medicine, GR 68100 Dragana, Alexandroupolis, Greece

Received February 24, 2019
Accepted July 14, 2019

The aim of this paper is to update and summarize the relevant literature on the anatomical localization, incidence, and diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to abdominal foreign bodies. A comprehensive review was carried out on recorded cases related to the presence of foreign bodies in the abdominal area throughout the literature. Moreover, the phenomenon was discussed in relation to different patient categories associated with childhood, mental or neurological illness, incarceration, and drug trafficking as well as sexual accident or abuse. Particular importance is ascribed to the underlying psychopathology and motivation of foreign body ingestion in each category of patients. The surgical, psychiatric and legal implications of the issue are discussed in detail.