[Voluntary or accidental ingestion of foreign bodies: clinical considerations in 142 cases].

The authors report on a series of 142 patients who had swallowed foreign bodies over the period 1981-1999. After outlining the various ways in which the foreign bodies were swallowed and the fact that they were eliminated spontaneously by natural routes in 80-90% of cases, the authors deal at some length with the serious complications that occurred in some of these cases, which, as a result of their characteristics and mode of ingestion, may require emergency surgery for their resolution. In particular, the authors describe 6 cases of foreign bodies that were urgently removed by endoscopy and also describe 3 cases in detail (1 perforation and 2 bowel obstructions) in which a laparotomy was required not only to correct the complication but also to definitively clarify the diagnosis.