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Broken and retained rectal thermometers in infants and young children
Author(s) -
LAU JAMES T. K.,
ONG G. B.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1981.tb01912.x
Subject(s) - medicine , rectal examination , perforation , sigmoidoscopy , surgery , rectum , proctoscopy , peritonitis , rectal temperature , general surgery , colonoscopy , anesthesia , colorectal cancer , materials science , prostate cancer , cancer , punching , metallurgy
. Fifteen patients with broken, and one patient with retained, rectal thermometers were reviewed. All were below the age of five. Histories of struggling in older children and difficult insertion of the thermometers in infants were often present. Rectal examination was definite in identifying the foreign bodies in seven patients. X‐ray was diagnostic in eight patients. None had any peritonitis or perforation. Five patients had rectal bleeding which subsided in three days. In the three patients who had procto‐sigmoidoscopic examination, all showed abrasions of the anterior rectal wall.