Multiple gastric ulcers caused by a rice cake as an intragastric foreign body

Retained Rice Cake: A Unique Upper Gastrointestinal Foreign Body: Case Report and a Literature Review

As a rarely recognized foreign body in the upper gastrointestinal tract, rice cake frequently requires endoscopic removal. We herein report six patients with characteristic sonography, computed tomography (CT), spectroscopy, endoscopy, and histological findings. A review of all published cases, including ours, revealed that retained rice cake in the stomach typically shows the following: abdominal pain (93.3%), mucosal injury (93.3%) with bleeding (42.9%); high-density (120-206 Hounsfield units) CT findings; and indication for endoscopy (80%). In the esophagus, hot, toasted rice cake causes thermal injury. Primary physicians should be aware of this popular-food-induced, but rare, disorder.

Small Bowel Obstruction Due to Mochi (Rice Cake): A Case Report and Review of the Literature

A 66-year-old man presented at our emergency department with severe intermittent abdominal pain. His history revealed that he had eaten several mochi (rice cakes) without sufficiently chewing them before swallowing. Following computed tomography that showed a high value, he was diagnosed with an obstruction caused by mochi. Although mochi obstruction can sometimes improve with conservative treatment, this case required laparotomy. Medical literature in English on small bowel obstruction due to mochi is rare, but fortunately in this case we were able to collect complete laboratory and imaging data. Furthermore, due to the surgical findings, we could clearly diagnose the pathophysiology of mochi obstruction. Here we describe a case of small bowel obstruction due to mochi, and review the literature to determine the characteristics of intestinal obstruction caused by it.

Rice cake ileus--a rare and ethnic but important disease status in east-southern Asia

INTRODUCTION

Rice cake is a traditional but very popular food in Asia including Japan and has never been known as a cause of ileus. Rice cake is now becoming widespread in the United States and European countries along with other Japanese foods. We may encounter rice cake ileus all over the world. This study was aimed at characterizing the rice cake ileus.

METHODS

We consecutively encountered 14 patients with rice cake ileus from April 2003 to October 2010 in our hospital. All of the characteristics of the cases were reviewed and analyzed.

RESULTS

All patients had ingested rice cake by swallowing without chewing. It has most frequently occurred in January (57.1%). The main symptoms were abdominal colicky pain (100%) and nausea (85.7%) and physical findings included abdominal tenderness (100%) and muscular defense (28.6%). All patients improved by conservative therapy including fluid supply (100%), naso-gastric tube (28.6%) and long tube (28.6%) insertion. No patient needed emergency open surgery.

CONCLUSION

Rice cake ileus which is caused by swallowing the rice cake without chewing, frequently occurs in January, has previous history of abdominal surgery and shows high density intestinal contents on CT and only needs conservative therapy. Globalism in food culture may provide a new disease entity. Therefore, we should be aware of this type of ileus and be prepared to manage it appropriately.