Stomach
Other nonneoplastic
Bezoars
Author: Elliot Weisenberg, M.D.
Last author update: 1 August 2012
Last staff update: 1 September 2020
Copyright: 2003-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: gastric bezoar
Table of Contents
Definition / generalCite this page: Weisenberg E. Bezoars. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/stomachbezoar.html. Accessed April 20th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Foreign bodies composed of hair or vegetable matter
- Motility abnormalities and obstructions predisopose to bezoar formation, may complicate diabetes mellitus, myotonic muscular dystrophy, chronic drug therapy (opiates, neuromuscular blockers)
- Phytobezoars:
- Plant material concretions
- Usually caused by ingestion of unripened persimmons
- Stomach acid causes polymerization of tannin monomers in fruit, causing a tannin-cellulose-hemicellulose-protein complex
- Dissolves with cellulase (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1980;104:159)
- Trichobezoars:
- Also known as hairballs
- Ingested hair coated with decaying food
- Associated with partial gastrectomy, partial outlet obstruction, lack of teeth, vagotomy, trichophagia
