Vietnam doctors remove 1kg of metal objects from patient with pica disorder

Doctors in Ho Chi Minh City have removed dozens of metal objects such as nails, blades, nail clippers, and spoons from the stomach of a man who suffers from an eating disorder.

Colonel Nguyen Quoc Dung, a senior doctor at Ho Chi Minh City-based 175 Military Hospital, which is managed by the Ministry of National Defense, confirmed on Sunday that the infirmary had conducted a surgery on T.H.T., a 27-year-old resident in southern Binh Duong Province.

T. showed signs of depression and pica, an eating disorder that involves consuming items that are not typically thought of as food and that do not contain significant nutritional value.

The man is considered a rarer case of pica as he had consumed a large number of metal objects, including nails, spoons, nail clippers, blades, iron sticks and hooks, and others.

T. had complained of abdominal pain for about a month, before his family brought him to the Binh Duong General Hospital.

Doctors found many metal objects inside his stomach and decided to transfer him to 175 Military Hospital.

Doctors at 175 Military Hospital diagnosed the patient with stomach damage caused by foreign bodies and performed an open surgery and a C-Arm X-ray to make sure there were no foreign bodies left.

Following a two-house operation, he was taken to the department of abdominal surgery for further treatment and care.

All of the metal objects in the patient’s body weighed about one kilogram.

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