Doctors remove 50 AA and AAA batteries from woman's gut and stomach

Doctors in Ireland removed batteries from a woman's body after she swallowed them.

A report of the case was published in the Irish Medical Journal. An X-ray showed a lot of batteries in her abdomen, but luckily there were no signs of structural damage.

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The treatment team initially took a conservative approach, meaning they watched the patient closely to see if there were any batteries in the GI tract. Over the course of a week, she passed five AA batteries, but X-rays taken over the next three weeks showed that most of the batteries had failed. The patient was suffering from abdominal pain.

A laparotomy was performed on the woman, in which surgeons made a small opening in her abdomen. The stomach was pulled down by the batteries and stretched into the pubic bone. The team used a small hole in the stomach to remove the batteries from the organ.

Doctors swallowed Lego minifigures in order to not have to.

The batteries were milked into the rectum and removed through the anus, bringing the total number of batteries to 55. A final X-ray showed that the woman's GI tract was battery-free and she went on to have an unexplained recovery.

"To the best of our knowledge, this case is the highest reported number of batteries eaten at a single point in time," the doctors wrote.

According to the report, most cases of battery ingestion published in medical journals describe instances in which a child has swallowed small, button style batteries. Doctors reported that the deliberate ingestion of multiple large AA batteries as a form of deliberate self- harm is unusual.

Sometimes batteries can pass through a child's body without causing injury. They can cause life threatening injuries if they get stuck in the throat. That's because saliva causes a chemical reaction in the batteries that can cause burns and tissue damage.

Live Science previously reported on the dangers of swallowing larger, cylindrical batteries, as well as the risk of chemical leak from the batteries.

According to the case report, the potential of cylindrical batteries should not be underestimated.

It was originally published on Live Science