Rectal foreign bodies are a common occurrence in hospital emergency rooms. In general, large foreign bodies found in the rectum can be assumed to have been inserted through the anus, rather than reaching the rectum via the mouth. It is often assumed that such cases are generally due to sex play by the patients or their sexual partners, although a great many patients deny this, claiming that the object was somehow inserted accidentally, for example by "slipping in the shower". Shortcut: WP:CU Marking articles for cleanup This page is undergoing a transition to an easier-to-maintain format. ... This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent format — it is a style guide. ... The emergency room is the American English term for a room, or group of rooms, within a hospital that is designed for the treatment of urgent and medical emergencies. ... The rectum (from the Latin rectum intestinum, meaning straight intestine) is the final straight portion of the large intestine in some mammals, and the gut in others, terminating in the anus. ...

Sometimes smaller foreign bodies, such as bones eaten with food, can be found stuck in the rectum.

Rectal foreign bodies, and amateur attempts to remove them, can result in perforation of the bowel, a life-threatening medical emergency. A perforation is a hole made by puncturing a surface. ... A medical emergency is an injury or illness that poses an immediate threat to a persons health or life which requires help from a doctor or hospital. ...

Medical literature covers examples of items retrieved from patients' rectums in extreme detail. Rectal foreign objects are also the subject of a number of urban legends. An urban legend is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ...

References in the media

• In the television show ER, there are several references to this, such as when Dr. Benton holds up a lower abdominal x-ray with a flashlight lodged in it, noting, "The patient claimed that he fell on it while changing a lightbulb. Naked." Another episode had a medical student asking Dr. John Carter about the oddest object removed from a rectum. Dr. Carter responds that it was a bowling trophy.

• The television show Scrubs has made two references to this phenomenon, the first in the season one episode "My Two Dads"; in the episode Turk gives his then girlfriend Carla a pen from what he thinks is the lost and found box, only to discover that the hospital has no lost and found box, and he has mistakenly given his girlfriend a pen from the "Ass Box," a box comprised entirely of items removed from peoples rectums. The second was when a patient came in with a lightbulb in his rectum, and Dr. Cox, Turk and the Janitor work together to figure out a way to remove the bulb without breaking it.

• On MTV's Jackass, Ryan Dunn went to the hospital with a HotWheel wrapped in a condom in his anus.

• On an episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza's father falls on a small sculpture that Cosmo Kramer made, resulting in it being in Mr. Costanza's ass.

ER is a long-running American serial medical drama created by novelist Michael Crichton and set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. ... Doctor Peter Benton was a fictional medical doctor on the television series ER from season one through season eight. ... Dr. John Truman Carter III, portrayed by Noah Wyle, is a fictional medical doctor from the television series ER. The character was introduced in the pilot episode, and, without interruption, was the only major character to have stayed with the show from the beginning of the series up to the... Scrubs is an American situation comedy that premiered on October 2, 2001 on NBC. It was created by Bill Lawrence, who also co-created Spin City. ... My Two Dads is the fifth episode of the American sitcom Scrubs. ... This article is about the sitcom. ... George Louis Costanza (born April 1959) is a fictional character on the United States based television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), played by Jason Alexander. ... Cosmo Kramer was the breakout character on the United States based television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), played by the actor Michael Richards. ...

References

• Busch D B, Starling J R. Rectal foreign bodies: Case reports and a comprehensive review of the world's literature. Surg 1986; 100: 512-519. See also the 1995 Literature laureates of the Ig Nobel Prize.

This is a list of Ig Nobel Prize winners from 1992 to the present day. ... The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early fall — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. ...

External links

• Cynsa's Rectal Foreign Bodies page
• NCEMI - Rectal foreign body
• eMedicine gastrointestinal emergency medicine
• Medical Journal of Australia
• Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
• British Dental Journal case report: Don't forget your toothbrush! (subscribers only - with useful bibliography)