Pesky Pesce: A Forgettable Fish Dinner with a Late Surprise, a Perianal Abscess

Abstract

Clinical presentation after ingestion of foreign body is a common finding in surgical practice. Perianal sepsis due to a foreign body is, usually, secondary to introduction via the trans-anal route. The case here reported is extremely rare since an ingested fishbone passed asymptomatically through most of the gastrointestinal tract, with resultant late-onset ischiorectal abscess. Moreover, clinical evidence of the perianal abscess manifested one month after the fishbone had been ingested. The final localization of the fishbone-lying anterior to the sacrum-complicated the preoperative and intraoperative detection of the ingested foreign body.

Keywords: Fishbone; Perianal abscess; Surgery.