Two brothers aged seven and four were operated on at the Almaty Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital after swallowing magnets. They were brought in with abdominal pain and restlessness. An examination found magnets in their gastrointestinal tracts, and doctors admitted them for emergency treatment.
Surgeons removed 29 magnets from the younger child’s stomach and small intestine. During the operation, they also found and removed Meckel’s diverticulum, a congenital pouch in the intestine.
The older boy had three magnets stuck together in his large intestine. Doctors performed laparoscopic surgery, moved the magnets to the area of the caecum and removed them there. The method avoided directly opening the intestine.
