Acute Generalized Peritonitis Due to the Migration of a Ballpoint Pen from Bladder to Great Peritoneal Cavity: A Case Report

Foreign bodies of the bladder are rares. The presence of a foreign body in the bladder is often anecdotic. We report a case of acute generalized peritonitis due to migration of a ballpoint pen from bladder to great peritoneal cavity in a 17-year-old man. He was admitted for a peritoneal syndrome after introducing a ballpoint pen into the urethra to masturbation purposes. He has no psychiatric history. Exploration had found an agglutination of small bowel loops around the ballpoint pen. The ballpoint pen was about 13.5 cm long and was transfixing the small intestine. We had noted about 20 cm of ileal necrosis about 30 cm from the ileocecal junction. An exit port was located at the posterior wall of the bladder. We performed a resection of the necrotic portion followed by end-to-end anastomosis. Bladder foreign bodies can have serious complications such as the formation of an acute surgical abdomen after migration of the foreign body. The extraction must be quickly carried as soon as the diagnosis is made to avoid these complications.