What does the bezoar stone look like?

A bezoar is a lump of hardened, undigested material found in the gastrointestinal tract of deer, antelope, goats, oxen and llamas. It forms when layers of calcium and magnesium phosphate build up around a small bit of plant fiber or a pebble. Stomach contractions squeeze and smooth it into a roughly round shape.

What do bezoars look like?

In most cases, bezoars will appear as a single mass. In other cases, they will be made up of multiple masses and could be colored green, brown, yellow, or black. The doctor may remove a small piece during an endoscopy to look for plant or hair material.

What is a bezoar stone?

Gastrointestinal (GI) bezoar stones are agglomerates of partially digested or undigested inorganic/organic materials formed within calcareous concretions in the GI tract of animals as well as human. In humans, bezoars are found mostly in the stomach and gastrointestinal tract as product of undigested fiber or hairs.

How do I know if I have a bezoar?

Most bezoars cause no symptoms. The diagnosis is based on x-rays and other imaging tests and on a visual examination of the digestive tract using endoscopy. Most bezoars need to be broken up into pieces with instruments or with swallowed agents or removed using an endoscope or surgically.

What were bezoar stones used for?

A bezoar stone at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, Louisiana

They were used as antidotes to arsenic, the poison used most commonly in European courts. The use of bezoars was widespread during the sixteenth century, and their value was ten times more than their weight in gold.

What Is A Bezoar? | Object of Intrigue | Atlas Obscura

Are bezoar stones real?

In strict mineralogical terms, bezoars are not actually stones. However, the Flemish mineralogist and physician, Anselm Boetius de Boodt (1550–1632) included them in his work Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia (History of Gems and Stones , 1609 ) and their study is an important chapter in the history of toxicology.

Are bezoars worth anything?

Bezoars today don't fetch quite that amount, but the study still found them selling for around $151 a gram—two and a half times the current price of gold—all for a useless clump of congealed, inedible food.

Where is a bezoar found?

Overview. When a tightly packed mass of undigested or partially digested material builds up in the digestive tract, its known as a bezoar, and it can cause a blockage. Bezoars occur in animals and humans of all age groups and are most commonly found in the stomach.

Can you see a bezoar on CT scan?

Abdominal radiographs revealed bezoars in three patients, sonography revealed bezoars in 15, and CT revealed bezoars in all 17. Seven patients had associated gastric bezoars revealed at CT versus only two patients with gastric bezoars revealed at sonography.

Does Coke help bowel obstruction?

Researchers at the medical school of Athens University found that of the 46 patients who were given Coca-Cola to treat the blockage, the treatment cleared the blockage in half, 19 patients needed additional non-invasive treatment, and four needed full surgery.

How do you dissolve bezoars?

Coke drinking is an effective first-line treatment to dissolve 'gastric bezoars' or indigestible masses that form in the stomach after foreign material accumulates there, according to a new Greek study.

Why was there hair in my poop?

Trichobezoars, undigested accumulations of hair in the gastrointestinal tract, are the most common type of bezoars, commonly seen in patients under 30 years of age[1]. In 90% of cases, the patients are women with long hair and emotional or psychiatric disorders.

Are bezoars fatal?

Bezoars are usually found in the stomach but may also be found in the duodenum, ileum, jejunum, colon or Meckel′s diverticulum. They can be extremely large, cause a wide variety of symptoms and can be fatal. Patients with bezoars may present with gastrointestinal obstruction that may involve any part of the bowel.

Are bezoars rare?

A bezoar is a concretion of foreign, indigestible material in the gastrointestinal tract. While bezoars are relatively rare, and often found incidentally, they can be the cause of vague symptoms like nausea and fullness, and lead to complications such as obstructions within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Can Metamucil cause a bezoar?

Pharmacobezoars are rare causes of small bowel obstruction, especially those composed of Metamucil and psyllium-based substances.

Why does it feel like my food is just sitting in my stomach?

Gastroparesis is a long-term (chronic) condition where the stomach cannot empty in the normal way. Food passes through the stomach slower than usual. It's thought to be the result of a problem with the nerves and muscles that control how the stomach empties.

Can you vomit up a bezoar?

The clinical manifestations of gastric bezoars include abdominal discomfort, pain, fullness, acid regurgitation, heartburn, and nausea and vomiting.

How do you get rid of bezoars naturally?

The first-line treatment for bezoars is typically to see if the concretion can be dissolved. It isn't often your doctor will recommend you drink a diet soda, but this is one of those rare cases. Studies have shown that drinking Diet Coke, along with taking cellulase, can dissolve some phytobezoars over several weeks.

Can bezoar be seen on ultrasound?

The diagnostic signs of a bezoar on ultrasonography included an arc-like surfaced intraluminal mass, posterior acoustic shadow and twinkling artifacts. The diagnostic performance of ultrasonography in each patient was compared with a final diagnosis that was surgically or clinically made.

Can gum cause a bezoar?

Still, Dr. Larson warns anyone – especially young kids – against routinely swallowing wads of this sticky stuff. "They could cause a bezoar effect, which is a medical term for a collection of material, such as gum, which could cause blockage symptoms," he explains.

Is a hairball a bezoar?

Trichobezoar is the medical or scientific term that is used to describe a hairball. The word “trich” means hair, while a bezoar is any foreign material that obstructs the stomach or intestines. Therefore, a trichobezoar is a gastrointestinal obstruction caused by hair.

Can a bezoar cure poison?

One fabled poison cure was the bezoar, a hardened spherical deposit of indigestible material that forms in the gastrointestinal tract of hoofed animals.

What are porcupine dates?

Porcupine dates are phytobezoar stones that are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatments against cancer, postsurgical recovery, dengue fever, etc. The medicinal values have not been scientifically investigated due to the availability and high pricing of the dates.

What is porcupine bezoar?

Porcupine bezoar (PB) is a calcified undigested material generally found in porcupine's (Hystrix brachyura) gastrointestinal tract. The bezoar is traditionally used in South East Asia and Europe for the treatment of cancer, poisoning, dengue, typhoid, etc.

What is a gastric phytobezoar?

Gastric phytobezoars are a form of intestinal blockage and are seen in those with poor gastric motility. The preferred treatment of bezoars includes different therapies and/or fragmentation to avoid surgery.