A 52-year-old French man with psychosis who repeatedly ate sharp objects had to have masses of metal removed from his stomach after it began puncturing the organ.
The man, whose case was published in the journal BMJ Case Reports, had spent years swallowing metal tools because of his psychiatric disorder.
Eventually the pieces joined together inside his body, forming clumps called bezoars, which can be formed anywhere in the digestive tract, including the stomach.
The man went to the emergency room five times in five years because he was vomiting blood and experiencing intense pain as a result of the bezoars in his stomach.
He has undergone five operations during which nails, screws, knives, nuts, a screwdriver head, spoon handles, pebbles, a washer, iron wire and coins were removed from his abdomen.
