Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
These images show a mass of hardened persimmon fruits and crab meat that formed a bezoar stone in the stomach of a middle-aged woman.
Ms Zhang, who is in her 40s, was admitted to Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital in Yangzhou in East China’s Zhejiang Province after complaining of stomach pains.
Doctor Zhu Zhen, the hospital’s resident gastroenterologist, said scans showed a shadow in Ms Zhang’s stomach, but it was difficult to identify and could have been anything from a pocket of air to a tumour.
However, a subsequent endoscopy revealed it to be a giant 2-inch bezoar obstructing the patient’s stomach and causing discomfort because of its large size.
After further questioning, the medic learned that Ms Zhang liked to eat crab meat and persimmon.
The combination of high-protein crab and the tannin-rich fruit is notoriously hard on the digestive system, leading to the formation of indigestible bezoars in the stomach.
The medic said Ms Zhang would undergo ultrasound shock wave treatment to break the bezoar apart.
The treatment is much less invasive than surgery and will cause no adverse effects.
Unripened persimmons contain the soluble tannin shibuol that polymerises when it meets acid in the stomach to form sticky mess that can harden into a “foodball” or bezoar. It will often merge with other stomach matter like in this case crab meat.
Statistics show almost all bezoars are caused by the ingestion of unripened persimmons and the problem is almost epidemic in areas where they are grown.
Doctor Zhu said: “For patients whose digestive system is already weak, eating many persimmons and a lot of crab in a short period of time can lead to the formation of bezoars due to a combination of proteins and tannic acids.”
Bezoars are small stony concretions that are usually found in some animals’ stomachs, especially ruminants, and which were once used as antidotes for various ailments.
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