Background:

intestinal perforations by foreign bodies are a rare cause of acute abdomen, but represent a diagnostic possibility that the doctor should not forget. The most affected areas are the ileocecal and rectosigmoid regions due to their angulation.

Objective:

to expose a case in which the descending colon was perforated by a bone fragment from the vertebra of the pig ingested 4 days before by the patient.

Clinical case:

a 42-year-old female patient who collects the habit of gnawing and swallowing the bones of her diet, begins with sudden pain in the lower hemiabdomen, at the colic type at the beginning, then becoming continuous and gradually increasing in intensity, not irradiated and exacerbated by the patient's sudden movements and coughing. Therefore, a perforation of the descending colon is surgically found, a descending and Hartman-type colostomy is performed, with good evolution and hospital discharge at 9 days.

Conclusions:

foreign bodies are a cause of perforation of the colon that the doctor should not ignore, although its incidence is very low in the literature, more, when there is a history of bone ingestion, as the case presented, the characteristic clinical picture of a peritoneal syndrome of perforation origin and although no radiological signs of pneumoperitoneum are found, this possibility should not be ruled out. The treatment will depend on the place, size, nature and properties of the foreign body and time of perforation, in addition to the experience of the surgeon.

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