Rectal foreign bodies are large foreign items found in the rectum that can be assumed to have been inserted through the anus, rather than reaching the rectum via the mouth and gastrointestinal tract. Smaller, ingested foreign bodies, such as bones eaten with food, can sometimes be found stuck in the rectum upon x-ray.
Rectal foreign bodies, and amateur attempts to remove them, can result in perforation of the bowel, which is a life-threatening medical emergency. Medical literature covers examples of items retrieved from patients' rectums. Rectal foreign objects are also the subject of a number of urban legends.
Famous quotes containing the words foreign and/or body:
“We should meet each morning, as from foreign countries, and spending the day together, should depart at night, as into foreign countries.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)