A foreign body (Latin: corpus alienum) is any object originating outside the body. In machinery, it can mean any unwanted intruding object.
Most references to foreign bodies involve propulsion through natural orifices into hollow organs.
Foreign bodies can be inert or irritating. If they irritate they will cause inflammation and scarring. They can bring infection into the body or acquire infectious agents and protect them from the body's immune defenses. They can obstruct passageways either by their size or by the scarring they cause. Some can be toxic.
Both children and adults experience problems caused by foreign objects getting stuck in their bodies. Young children, in particular, are naturally curious and may intentionally put shiny objects, such as coins or button batteries, into their mouths. They also like to stick things in their ears and up their noses. The effect of a foreign body can very different. For example, a coin causes local pressure on the tissue but generally, is not a medical emergency to remove. A button battery, which can be a very similar size to a coin, generates hydroxide ions at the anode and causes a chemical burn in 2 hours. An ingested button battery that is stuck in the esophagus is a medical emergency. In 2009, Avolio Luigi and Martucciello Giuseppe showed that although ingested nonmagnetic foreign bodies are likely to be passed spontaneously without consequence, ingested magnets (magnetic toys) may attract each other through the children intestinal wall and cause severe damage, such as pressure necrosis, perforation, intestinal fistulas, volvulus, and obstruction.
Read more about Foreign Body: Alimentary Tract, Airways, Eyes, Skin/tissue, Other, In Other Animals
Other articles related to "foreign body, foreign, body":
... Foreign bodies are common in animals, especially dogs and cats ... Foreign bodies most commonly become lodged in the stomach because of the inability to pass through the pyloric sphincter, and in the jejunum ... Foreign bodies in the stomach can sometimes be removed by endoscopic retrieval or if necessary by gastrotomy ...
... A foreign-body giant cell is a collection of fused macrophages (giant cell) which are generated in response to the presence of a large foreign body ... This is particularly evident with implants that cause the body chronic inflammation and foreign body response ...
Famous quotes containing the words body and/or foreign:
“Of what use were it, pray, to get a little wood to burn, to warm your body this cold weather, if there were not a divine fire kindled at the same time to warm your spirit?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There can only be one Commander-in-Chief. In these times, crises cannot be managed and wars cannot be waged by committee. To the ears of the world, the President speaks for the nation. While he is of course ultimately accountable to Congress, the courts, and the people, he and his emissaries must not be handicapped in advance in their relations with foreign governments as has sometimes happened in the past.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)