Doctors perform surgery to retrieve eight nails swallowed by 30-year-old woman

Friday, October 23, 2026 - A woman had to undergo surgery after swallowing eight nails that lodged themselves in her intestines, threatening to pierce them. 

The 30-year-old was admitted to hospital after experiencing severe stomach pain. 

The patient was already under psychiatric care and had a history of swallowing objects, as she had pica – a health disorder where a person compulsively craves and swallows non-food items. She also had as an anxiety disorder. 

“This was her sixth episode of foreign body ingestion in the past year,” wrote Dr Bhoowit Lerttiendamrong, from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, in BMJ Case Reports. 

Doctors overseeing the woman were worried the sharp metal nails would perforate her organs. 

Dr Lerttiendamrong said: “Intentional foreign body ingestion is often seen in patients with psychiatric disorders, advanced age, intoxication, developmental delays or incarceration. 

“Approximately 80 per cent of ingested foreign bodies pass spontaneously in both adult and paediatric patients. 

“However, endoscopic management should be considered in cases involving sharp-pointed objects. 

“Sharp objects pose a particular challenge due to the increased risk for perforation, necessitating extreme caution during removal. 

“Nails are especially difficult to remove endoscopically due to their sharp, irregular shapes, which can make them hard to grasp and may require surgical intervention.” 

The medical team initially chose to monitor the woman, in the hope the nails would pass through her digestive system on their own. 

She underwent scans every 12 hours, which showed “multiple nails” had lodged themselves in her upper abdomen. 

“Repeat imaging demonstrated progressive migration of the nails from the mid-abdomen to the right lower quadrant, ultimately clustering near the ileocaecal valve.” 

This is the sphincter muscle between the end of the small intestine and the start of the large one. 

After four days of little movement, the medical team elected to remove the nails with a colonoscopy. 

All eight of the nails were successfully removed. 

Thankfully, the woman had only suffered “superficial abrasions” to the lining of her intestine. 

Dr Lerttiendamrong told Medpage Today: “It’s pretty rare to have a foreign body that goes all the way down to the lower GI system, and even rarer that sharp foreign bodies go down that far.” 

The psychiatry department was consulted on her case, but despite their recommendation that she be admitted, the woman “adamantly” refused, according to the case report. 

There have been no further complications after the colonoscopy, and the patient is being followed up with as an outpatient.