Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the clinical features and outcome in girls with a vaginal foreign body.
Methods
The clinical data of 97 girls with a vaginal foreign body were collected between 2010 and 2020. The descriptive analysis was used to summarize the clinical characteristics.
Results
The patients were aged between 1.5 and 14.8 years, and the age of peak incidence was shown to be 3–10 years, which accounted for 88% of the cases. Blood-stained vaginal discharge or vaginal bleeding was the most common symptom (48%). The most common foreign bodies were small hard objects (57%), followed by bits of cloth or toilet tissue (22%). The patient whose foreign object was a disk battery had the most severe symptoms. When an injury of the vaginal mucosal was suspected, antibiotics were used to prevent infection, with full recovery of all patients without any additional treatment after removal of the foreign object.
Conclusion
If there is no damage to the vaginal mucosa, no additional treatment is needed after the foreign body is removed. When a vaginal foreign body is suspected to be a battery, emergency surgery is needed to prevent further damage.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the parents and children who enrolled in the study and the health professionals from the department of ultrasonography. Their outstanding support and contributions are gratefully appreciated. The authors would like to express their gratitude to EditSprings (https://www.editsprings.cn/) for the expert linguistic services provided.
Funding
This study was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing Province of China (cstc2021jcyj-msxmX0549).
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JHL contributed to conception and design. TL, DWH and GHW contributed to administrative support. WM and YFS contributed to collection and assembly of data. WMa, YFS contributed to data analysis and interpretation. YFS and WM contributed to manuscript writing. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.
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This retrospective study involving human participants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Ma, W., Sun, YF., Liu, JH. et al. Vaginal foreign bodies in children: a single-center retrospective 10-year analysis. Pediatr Surg Int 38, 637–641 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-022-05075-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-022-05075-5