Foreign body ingestion is a common paediatric problem. In the majority of cases spontaneous passage occurs. Magnet ingestion is rare and solitary magnet ingestion usually does not cause any complications. A number of gastrointestinal complications have been reported, such as fistula formation, perforation and volvulus following multiple magnet ingestion. We review magnet ingestion and describe the first case in the literature of magnet induced perforated appendicitis with an associated ileo-caecal fistula.
Keywords: appendicitis; foreign body ingestion; magnets; small bowel fistula.