Distal ileal perforation due to accidental ingestion of meat bone mimicking acute appendicitis

Abstract

Foreign body (FB) ingestion is quite frequently seen in clinical practice while intestinal perforation due to it is infrequent. Preoperative diagnosis is quite challenging once the history is inconsistent. We report herein, a young male patient who presented to the emergency department with acute abdomen a day after taking sheep meat with unnoticed ingestion of bone, where a clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis was made, later came out distal ileal perforation due to “meat bone” that was protruded into the abdominal cavity. The bone was removed and perforation closed through endo stitch. The report of this case highlights the risk of missing the unusual causes of acute abdomen if the history is incomplete or the FB is radiolucent. Surgeons treating acute abdomen should keep the uncommon causes in mind once the common causes are excluded from the study.