An Unusual Cause of Vomiting and Dehydration in a Geriatric Patient Who Swallowed a Foreign Body—Ring

The risk of morbidity and mortality is high in foreign bodies seen in geriatric ages. The diagnosis of foreign body ingestion is usually difficult in the absence of a suitable history, so patients may present with late clinical findings. Small foreign bodies can be seen on computed tomography as 88% of swallowed foreign bodies are radiopaque. A 75-year-old male patient with Alzheimer’s and dementia diseases swallowed a 2.4-cm ring as a foreign body, and subsequently, within days, clinical complications such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and dehydration were detected in the emergency room. The presence of a foreign body was detected in the computed tomography scan; it was treated with endoscopic treatment and removed successfully. We aimed to present this case because of the detection of the ring, which is a rare foreign body in the literature, in a geriatric patient who presented with late-stage clinical symptoms such as dehydration and its removal with a successful endoscopic procedure.

Cite this article as: Atayan Y, Yalcin M. An unusual cause of vomiting and dehydration in a geriatric patient who swallowed a foreign body—ring. Diagn Interv Endosc. 2023;2(1):24-26.