Bamboo skewer perforation of the bowel: Computed tomography appearances

Abstract

A 25-year-old Chinese woman presented with a painful left-lower-quadrant abdominal mass. Computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a dense forked foreign body within an extraluminal mass. A 2.5 cm bamboo skewer surrounded by inflamed omentum was found at laparotomy. Different CT densities of bamboo skewers were obtained when exposed to air, water and 2% Gastrografin in an in vitro experiment. Awareness of the possible variations in appearances of wooden foreign bodies in and around the bowel may aid their CT diagnoses.

Unique foreign body injury: bamboo penetration of thigh and pelvis while skiing

“…CT has inherently better contrast resolution than plain radiography. Published experience with the imaging of foreign bodies with CT includes in vitro studies [2] and occurrences in the orbit [3,4,5,6,7], tracheobronchial tree [8], abdomen [9,10], lung [11], and extremity [12]. Ultrasonography has also proven useful in the identification of nonradiopaque foreign bodies, especially when located superficially [13].…”

“…CT showed a linear high density pointing toward a fluid collection containing air. Peh et al [10] described CT findings of a case of bamboo skewer perforation of the bowel. CT demonstrated a dense, forked foreign body within an extraluminal mass.…”