Doctors from the Da Nang-based Family General Hospital announced on Monday that they have  performed emergency surgery for a female patient suffering small bowel perforation due to fish bone.

Previously, Mrs. P.T.T, 35, residing in Da Nang, had gone to the Family General Hospital for medical checkups when she  continuously suffered a dull pain in the right flank of unknown cause for a long time.

Through clinical examinations and blood tests combined with ultrasound and CT scan, the hospital’s doctors had detected that an about 2.5cm-long foreign body penetrated the wall of the small intestine, creating a localised abscess accompanied by perforated peritoneal fluid.

Realising the severity of the disease, the doctors had held an urgent consultation and agreed to perform an emergency surgery for the female patient.

Then, doctors had decided to conduct an endoscope operation to remove the object out of her small intestine.

According to the surgeons, this was a difficult case because the head of the foreign body was buried deep in the mesentery of the intestine, forced to open the mesenteric leaf to see a small part. After surgery, the woman recovered well after the operation and no longer had abdominal pain.

According to Doctor Le Xuan Long from the Family General Hospital, complications when having a gastrointestinal foreign body are very dangerous if not detected and treated in time it can cause perforation of internal organs, bleeding, and septic abscesses, and even fatal.

Therefore, doctors recommend people absolutely not to self-treat at home when swallowing a foreign body or not try to swallow more food with the aim of making the foreign body "float" down.

To avoid further damage to the digestive tract and complicate the situation, it is necessary to visit a medical facility for timely interventional treatment.

Reporting by L.H - Translating by M.DUNG