BEZOARS EZOARS ARE UNCOMMON abnormalities. Pieces of a bezoar can break off and cause intestinal obstruction. In the case presented below, the entire bezoar fashioned itself into a rope-like form and passed from the stomach to the ileocecal valve where it obstructed the small intestine. Apparently this phenomenon has not been recorded before.
Report of a Case
The patient was a 3-year-old Sioux Indian girl brought to the Rosebud Public Health Service Indian Hospital on October 3, 1964 by her parents who stated that the child had been vomiting for two days. They also noted that she had been pulling her hair and eating it. The patient had been hospitalized on nine different occasions since birth. Previous diagnoses included fever of unknown origin, gastroenteritis, otitis media, bronchopneumonia, pyelonephritis, lobar pneumonia, and shigellosis. She had apparently recovered from all of these illnesses. Physical examination revealed an ill female child. Her temperature