Check out what I found ...

I was at work, minding my own business, doing my thing. It was a normal day in the neighborhood: altered mental status (UTI), dysuria (UTI), suprapubic pain (UTI), mixed in with a little shortness of breath (pneumonia) when all of a sudden I came across this ...


A 20-ish year old female with epigastric pain over the past several weeks, worst with eating. Sounded every bit like a little gastritis but my sixth sense inspired me to CT scan her anyway. Glad I did. What is it? How is it treated? Scroll down for answer.

*

*

*

*

*

A bezoar. On CT it appears as a mass with air bubbles which conforms to the confines of the stomach. Turns out the patient liked chewing on her hair and ingested a bit too much. A gastrotomy later, the patient is now doing fine. Smaller bezoars can sometimes be broken up and removed via endoscopy.

Source

Image: http://newyorkmedicaljournal.org/Archives/Parekh4-06.htm

Townsend: Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, 18th ed.