"A 63-year-old woman showed up at the emergency department of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston with severe stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. She told doctors that for the past month she had developed severe nausea, non-bloody vomiting, and pain she described as a burning feeling that spread from her upper abdomen, through her right side, and around to her back. Nothing she did made it better."
"The doctors started collecting her medical history, which was lengthy. The woman had Type 2 diabetes, Stage 2 chronic kidney disease, opioid use disorder, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), among other conditions. While she was taking many medications, she noted that for the past year she had also been taking semaglutide, a GLP-1 weight-loss drug, and had lost about 40 pounds (over 19 percent of her body weight)."
"The doctors started doing lab tests and imaging, and they admitted her to the hospital. A computed tomography (CT) scan of her abdomen revealed bile-duct enlargement and a swollen stomach that seemed to be full of a semi-solid mass. Similarly, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) also picked up a mass in her stomach, one with mottling that doctors assumed were air bubbles. The imaging also found bile duct enlargement, which could be linked to her history of opioid use-or to a gastric bezoar."
A 63-year-old woman presented with a month of severe nausea, non-bloody vomiting, and burning abdominal pain radiating to her right side and back. Her medical history included Type 2 diabetes, Stage 2 chronic kidney disease, opioid use disorder, and GERD, and she had been taking semaglutide for a year with about 40 pounds of weight loss. Imaging with CT and MRI showed bile-duct enlargement and a swollen stomach containing a semi-solid, mottled mass that was suspected to be a gastric bezoar. Gastric bezoars form from clumped stomach contents; phytobezoars arise from indigestible plant material, and diospyrobezoars form after excessive persimmon consumption.
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