An unusual foreign body in the distal small intestine - Case report

A case of a deceased 77-year-old woman presenting to the coroner for postmortem examination scribed. A plastic tie used to seal leaves of sliced bread and other plastic-wrapped food stuffs was found clamped by its "teeth" to a length of small bowel proximal to the cecum, resulting in localized mucosal ulceration, thickening, and edema of the bowel wall. There was also infarcted small bowel due to aortic atherosclerosis, which was submitted as the cause of death. The presence of the bread tie probably did not significantly contribute to death but was as an unusual finding at postmortem examination and has not been previously described.