Injuries from ingesting wire bristles dislodged from grill-cleaning brushes — Providence, Rhode Island, 2009–2012

Foreign object ingestion is a common reason for visiting an emergency department; however, wire grill-cleaning brush bristles are an uncommon foreign object. This report describes a series of twelve cases identified in a single hospital system from July 2009 through June 2012. Patients included six...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of safety research 2012-12, Vol.43 (5-6), p.413-415
Main Authors: Grand, David J., Egglin, Thomas K., Mayo-Smith, William W., Cronan, John J., Gilchrist, Julie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdominal Injuries - diagnostic imaging
Abdominal Injuries - etiology
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Child
Cooking
Cooking and Eating Utensils
Deglutition
Emergency medical care
Emergency Service, Hospital
Female
Food
Foreign Bodies - diagnostic imaging
Foreign Bodies - etiology
Foreign Bodies - surgery
Foreign body
Grill-cleaning brushes
Grills
Humans
Imaging
Ingestion of food
Ingestion of objects
Injuries
Male
Middle Aged
Neck Injuries - diagnostic imaging
Neck Injuries - etiology
Radiography
Rhode Island
Safety
Wire
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Summary:Foreign object ingestion is a common reason for visiting an emergency department; however, wire grill-cleaning brush bristles are an uncommon foreign object. This report describes a series of twelve cases identified in a single hospital system from July 2009 through June 2012. Patients included six males and six females; ages ranged from 11 to 75 (mean: 47years). The patients all reported recent outdoor residential food grilling and use of commercially available wire grill-cleaning brushes. The severity of injury ranged from puncture of the soft tissues of the neck, causing severe pain on swallowing, to perforation of the gastrointestinal tract requiring emergent surgery. Before cooking, persons should examine the grill surface carefully for the presence of wire bristles that might have dislodged from the grill brush and could embed in cooked food. Alternative residential grill-cleaning methods or products might be considered. ► Wire bristles from grill-cleaning brushes may dislodge and be inadvertently ingested with food. ► Plain radiography and CT without oral contrast are mainstays of diagnostic workup. ► Surgery may be required in cases of gastrointestinal perforation.
ISSN:0022-4375
1879-1247
DOI:10.1016/j.jsr.2012.10.008