Surgeons Find Live Woodlouse Inside Intestinal Blockage in Italy
Surgeons in Bologna extracted a live woodlouse trapped inside a plant-fiber intestinal blockage in an 82-year-old woman. The phytobezoar protected the crustacean from stomach acids, and the patient recovered successfully.
An extraordinary medical incident in Bologna, Italy, left a surgical team in complete shock when an 82-year-old woman was urgently hospitalized due to a life-threatening intestinal obstruction. When surgeons opened her abdomen to extract the source of the blockage—a solid mass of plant material—a small living creature suddenly emerged completely alive. The report on this unusual case was published in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports.
The cause of the obstruction was diagnosed as a phytobezoar—a compacted, rigid mass of plant fibers and undigested food residue measuring over 5.5 centimeters in length. The creature that emerged from the mass was identified as a terrestrial crustacea from the order Isopoda, commonly known as a woodlouse or pill bug, rather than an insect or internal parasite.
According to the medical team's assessment, the elderly woman accidentally swallowed the woodlouse along with improperly washed fruits or vegetables. Remarkably, the mass of plant fibers formed around it in the digestive system acted as a tight shield protecting it against harsh stomach acids and digestive enzymes, allowing it to survive inside the body until the moment of extraction in the operating room. The patient successfully recovered from the complex surgical procedure, and during a follow-up conducted 18 months later, it was reported that she lives in a nursing home and her condition is stable.
Medical literature notes that foreign bodies account for about 25% of small bowel obstruction cases, although volvulus remains the most common cause of these conditions among individuals aged 50 and older. The case once again demonstrates the critical importance of thoroughly washing fresh agricultural produce before consumption.
