A nationwide questionnaire survey on accidental magnet ingestion in children in Japan

Abstract

Foreign body (FB) ingestion is a common accident encountered in daily paediatric practice. Three-fourths of patients with accidental FB ingestions occur in children aged ≤ 5 years. 1 Although most children with accidental FB ingestion are asymptomatic and FBs such as coin will pass with no gastrointestinal symptoms, button batteries, 2 multiple magnets 3 and magnets with metal objects 4 are known to sometimes cause life-threatening complications. Deaths following multiple-magnet ingestion have been reported. 5 Magnets are widely used in daily life as toys or pasting tools that are utilised to paste documents or photographs on metal products such as whiteboards and refrigerators. The number of accidental ingestions of magnets is increasing. 6,7 A study in the United States revealed an 8.5-fold increase of emergency department visits involving magnet ingestion. 6 The hazards of single-magnet ingestion

Esophagogastric Fistula: The Consequence of High-Powered Magnets Ingestion

“…Although this is a victory for pediatric advocates, the risks remain present as there are already millions of high-powered magnets in homes and classrooms across the United States, and these magnets are still easily available online. This risk is not unique to the United States, as several publications support the harm of high-powered magnets in Japan and the United Kingdom ( 11 , 12 ).…”

Pediatric Magnet Ingestion, Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention: A European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) Position Paper

“…Rare-earth magnet ingestion has a higher risk of morbidity and mortality compared to other types of FBs excepting button batteries (BB). In parallel with BB ingestion an increase in magnet ingestion incidence has been reported over the last two decades, that is, relatively more recent than that of other FBs (11,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27).…”

Paediatric magnet ingestion: Urging for a national database

“…Dear Editor, We have read with great interest the article recently published in Acta Paediatrica by Miyamoto et al 1 The authors clarified the actual situation of paediatric magnet ingestion in Japan through a nationwide survey and well documented the clinical characteristics of these affected children. We congratulate the authors for sharing valuable knowledge in this area, as before then, similar nationwide studies were limited that mainly came from the United States.…”