Pharmacobezoar complicating treatment with sodium alginate

We encountered a gastric bezoar that had developed in a 9-year-old girl treated with sodium alginate (Alloid G) for acute gastritis associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. A hard mass palpated in the left upper abdomen proved, upon gastric endoscopy, to be an intragastric foreign body. Sodium alginate was detected in an analysis of a sample from this bezoar. In an in vitro simulation, sodium alginate solidified when mixed with the patient’s other medicines. The bezoar caused no complications, and disappeared spontaneously after discontinuation of the medications. This case indicates that this sodium alginate preparation, Alloid G, can be a cause of pharmacobezoar.