Ingestion of magnetic foreign bodies causing multiple bowel perforations

We report a 3-year-old boy who presented to the emergency room with the suspicion of having swallowed an unknown number of industrial metallic objects, subsequently shown to be magnets. During the hospital course, the boy developed multiple bowel perforations caused by the swallowed magnets that were attracted across the bowel walls. The patient management was delayed as the radiographic appearance of the foreign object did not immediately reveal that multiple magnets were stuck to one another. By this report we aim to alert the radiological and pediatric community to the possible presentation of multiple magnet ingestion. If multiple magnets or a combination of magnets and metallic objects are suspected, immediate radiographic evaluation is warranted for confirmation, and urgent surgical exploration may be necessary to prevent bowel perforation and/or intraabdominal abscess formation. (orig.)