P4157 - A Case of Foreign Body Ingestion: Tongue Ring

Kanith Farah, MD¹, Hany Eskarous, MD², Karim Badawi, MD¹, Olanrewaju Adeniran, MBBS³, Ethan M.. Cohen, MD¹, Arun Chaudhury, MD⁴, Ayowumi A.. Adekolu, MD¹, Vikas Khurana, MD^5
1West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV; ²The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, Dunmore, PA; ³West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV; ⁴Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Clarks Summit, PA; ⁵The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, Scranton, PA

Introduction: We discuss the importance of identifying which foreign bodies need to be removed and which can remain. There have been cases of tongue rings found in different locations of the GI tract, with some locations posing a higher risk when they are not removed.

Case Description/Methods: A forty-two-year-old female patient with no significant past medical history presented with accidental swallowing of a tongue ring without any GI symptoms. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed, however, was unable to locate the tongue ring due to food residue. Forty-eight hours later the tongue ring was identified on a CT scan and we proceeded with a colonoscopy. At the cecum, a 2 cm metallic foreign body with a ball on one side and a semi-blunt on the other was identified. The foreign body was carefully pulled away and successfully removed. The patient tolerated the procedure well and without complications.

Discussion: Our patient demonstrates the lesson of understanding GI motility and the risk of missing a semi-blunt object being ingested unknowingly. Tongue rings are becoming a commonly ingested foreign body that can pose risks, especially in the cecum. Foreign bodies in the cecum can lead to possible bleeding, perforation, peritonitis, or infection. Chronic presence of a foreign body can lead to ulcers in the cecal lining. Since most cases of tongue- -ingestion are asymptomatic, the object can remain for long periods and cause complications. The lack of current guidelines on whether the tongue ring should be removed when the patient is asymptomatic will require further investigations to guide clinical practice.



Disclosures:


Kanith Farah, MD¹, Hany Eskarous, MD², Karim Badawi, MD¹, Olanrewaju Adeniran, MBBS³, Ethan M.. Cohen, MD¹, Arun Chaudhury, MD⁴, Ayowumi A.. Adekolu, MD¹, Vikas Khurana, MD⁵. P4157 - A Case of Foreign Body Ingestion: Tongue Ring, ACG 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Philadelphia, PA: American College of Gastroenterology.