ENDOSCOPIC REMOVAL OF A TOOTHPICK FROM THE TRANSVERSE COLON

We describe the case of a patient who presented,vith abdominal pain, w eight loss, and night sweats of 8 wk duration due to the impalement of a toothpick in the transverse colon, The toothpick, which was inadver tently swallowed, was successfully removed during colonoscopy, Therape utic colonoscopy has replaced or lessened to a significant degree the need for traditional open surgical procedures to extract foreign bodie s from the colon, Unexplained abdominal pain and constitutional sympto ms should alert the clinician to the possibility of a foreign body.