A constipated Iranian man went to the hospital only because his wife was concerned about his refusal to eat, his abdominal pain, and what they found inside his rectum was not what you’d expect.
The doctors, after conducting a CT scan to ascertain exactly what was gumming up the works, pulled out a seven-and-half-inch water bottle that was full. The base of the bottle was near his colon while the top rested near his anus because he apparently wanted the top where he could grab it and pull it out.
“Because of his embarrassment and fear of his wife, he did not provide any history of the presence of a FB in the rectum and arrived at the ED late,” the case report stated, adding, “Although patients of different ages and ethnicities have been described with retained RFBs [rectal foreign bodies], more than two-thirds of patients with rectal bodies are males between the ages of 30 and 40, and individuals as old as 90 have also been described. … Most RFBs that are inserted into the anus by adults are for self-gratification.”
Five days after the man showed up at the hospital, he was discharged and referred to a psychiatric clinic. One month after the procedure he had no perforation, bleeding, or fecal incontinence. The man gave written informed consent to publish the case report.
Roughly 400 rectal foreign bodies are removed from English anuses each year, the Daily Mail noted, costing the British public about $400,000 per year to deal with.
“Various instruments, including bulbs, bottles, billy clubs, impulse body spray cans, and turkey basters, have been described as having retained RFBs,” the case report pointed out. “The FBs commonly described were plastic or glass bottles, cucumbers, light bulbs, as well as tube lights, ax handles, broomsticks, carrots, wooden, or rubber instruments.”
In November 2021, the Royal College of Surgeons in England released the results of a study conducted between 2010-2019 researching rectal foreign bodies that required removal. In total, 3,500 rectal foreign bodies were removed, with men responsible for 85.1% of them.