OROGASTRIC MAGNET REMOVAL OF INGESTED DISC BATTERIES

Ingestion of disc batteries by infants and small children is an increa sing problem. Batteries that remain in the stomach can corrode and dam age mucosa and/or produce poisoning. Between 1989 and 1992, 37 childre n who had swallowed a total of 46 disc batteries presented to the Roya l Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, and were referred for battery removal by use of an orogastric magnet under fluoroscopy. Thirty-nine batteries were removed successfully (without anesthesia) from 32 chil dren, using a magnet attached to an orogastric tube. In three cases th e battery had passed into the small bowel. In one case, magnet extract ion failed, but the two batteries the child had ingested subsequently passed into the small bowel. In two cases the patients refused to swal low the tube. In one of these cases the battery was removed successful ly by the magnet, with the patient under general anesthesia; in the ot her it passed spontaneously into the small bowel. The authors conclude that orogastric magnet removal is a minimally invasive, well-tolerate d method of removing ingested disc batteries. Copyright (C) 1995 by W. B. Saunders Company