Intestinal obstruction due to bezoars: a retrospective clinical study

Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare the results of surgical procedures applied to rare intestinal obstruction cases due to bezoars and to identify effective factors for determining the type of surgical procedure to be applied. Methods The records of 62 patients who had received gastrointestinal surgical treatment due to bezoars were assessed retrospectively. The preoperative characteristics, perioperative findings and postoperative results of cases that had and had not undergone an enterotomy were compared Results The average patient age was 57.7 years (range, 26-84 years), and all patients had phytobezoars, except one. The most common location for bezoars was the jejunum (28 cases, 45.1 %). Sixteen cases (25.8 %) had multiple bezoars located in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract. While milking was applied to 26 cases (41.9 %) with small intestinal bezoars, an enterotomy was used to remove bezoars in 23 cases (37 %). More complications tended to be identified in patients who underwent an enterotomy; however, the difference was not significant (p = 0.553). Conclusions The frequency of previous abdominal surgery in patients suffering from an intestinal obstruction due to bezoars causes diagnostic conflict. The location of bezoars in the small intestine should also be considered when deciding the surgical procedure, as well as the physical properties of the bezoars. Our opinion is that conducting the milking procedure should not be insisted on, and that an enterotomy should be conducted when necessary.