Introduction
Small-bowel obstruction (SBO) is one of the most common causes of
emergency service admission. Prior abdominal surgery-related adhesions
are the cause of 65-75% of cases. Hernias, neoplasms, Crohn’s disease,
bezoars, foreign bodies and intussusceptions are other etiological
causes of SBO.1, 2 Food-related SBO was described for
many fruits including citrus fruit, persimmons, orange pith, mango,
carrots, Brussels sprouts, wild banana and dried fruits. However, all
those reports described phytobezoars as the mechanism of
obstruction.3-5
Pear (Pyrus) is one of the most bred and consumed fruits in the
world. There are hundreds of Pyrus species but only 23 wild species were
described, all native to Europe, northern Africa and temperate regions
of Asia.6 Oleaster-leafed pear (Pyrus
elaeagnifolia Pall.) is one of the endemic wild pear species of
Anatolia. Besides Turkey, it is grown also in south Ukraine, Albania,
Bulgaria, Greece and Romania.6 The wild pear fruits
mostly consumed by local people and also preferred especially for the
treatment of diarrhea in traditional medicine in
Turkey.7
In our city, this oleaster-leafed pear tree grows naturally and fruits
are frequently consumed by local people during the harvest season. It
was noticed that many patients who excessively consumed this wild pear
for traditional diarrhea treatment admitted to the emergency department
with a SBO presentation during the harvest season. In the present study,
we aimed to describe this unfamiliar food-related SBO entity and compare
clinical characteristics of it with those in adhesive SBO.