Bezoares gastrointestinales: mitos y realidades



Document title: Bezoares gastrointestinales: mitos y realidades
Journal: Revista médica de Chile
Database: PERIÓDICA
System number: 000400046
ISSN: 0034-9887
Authors: 1
Institutions: 1Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Medicina y Clínica, Santiago de Chile. Chile
Year:
Season: Ago
Volumen: 144
Number: 8
Pages: 1073-1077
Country: Chile
Language: Español
Document type: Artículo
Approach: Descriptivo
English abstract Gastrointestinal bezoars are a concretion of indigested material that can be found in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and some animals. This material forms an intraluminal mass, more commonly located in the stomach. During a large period of history animal bezoars were considered antidotes to poisons and diseases. We report a historical overview since bezoars stones were thought to have medicinal properties. This magic conception was introduced in South America by Spanish conquerors. In Chile, bezoars are commonly found in a camelid named guanaco (Lama guanicoe). People at Central Chile and the Patagonia believed that bezoar stones had magical properties and they were traded at very high prices. In Santiago, during the eighteenth century the Jesuit apothecary sold preparations of bezoar stones. The human bezoars may be formed by non-digestible material like cellulose (phytobezoar), hair (trichobezoar), conglomerations of medications or his vehicles (pharmacobezoar or medication bezoar), milk and mucus component (lactobezoar) or other varieties of substances. This condition may be asymptomatic or can produce abdominal pain, ulceration, gastrointestinal bleeding, gastric outlet obstruction, perforation and mechanical intestinal obstruction. We report their classification, diagnostic modalities and treatment
Disciplines: Medicina
Keyword: Gastroenterología,
Historia y filosofía de la medicina,
Bezoares,
Obstrucción intestinal,
Creencias,
Piedras
Keyword: Medicine,
Gastroenterology,
History and philosophy of medicine,
Bezoars,
Intestinal obstruccion,
Beliefs,
Stones
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