Abdominal X‐ray showing magnetic attraction across the intestinal wall

Abstract

A 3-year-old boy presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain and frequent vomiting. Physical examination was not remarkable, except for slight abdominal tenderness. His mother reported that he had ingested several magnets and abdominal radiography showed seven metallic foreign bodies in line, suggesting the ingestion of multiple magnets (Fig. 1). These seven magnets consisted of a cluster of six magnets and one separated magnet, which indicated that the intestinal wall was sandwiched by these magnets. A cluster of six magnets located in the stomach was removed by emergency endoscopy (Fig. 2a), whereas one separated magnet could not be found because it was not located in the stomach and thus could not be removed by endoscopy. After the removal of six magnets,