Drink cola: Break up persimmon bezoar in a young girl. We are about to share very important news about the negative effect of overconsuming persimmons fruits. This article is written to instill awareness for all new parents about giving persimmon fruits to your young children.
Persimmon is one of the common fruits in Asia- China, Japan, and South Korea are the top producers of persimmon, and China produces 75% of total persimmons in the world. Persimmon is a tropical fruit rich in fiber, a good source of antioxidant, and offer lots of health benefits if you eat in moderation. It tastes sweet when it is ripe and children love eating it.
This is a true story, that happened in Shanghai China, a 4-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital on February 15 2022, due to abdominal pain and vomiting blood. After being diagnosed by the doctors, they found a 4cm in length stone-like mass called a bezoar in her stomach. Due to constant abrasion of the bezoar, leaving about 1cm in diameter of ulcer in her stomach, and multiple erosions which cause bleeding.
According to South China Morning Post, this poor little girl has eaten 6 dried persimmons on an empty stomach before, and the cause of the formation of bezoar in her stomach as a result of overconsuming dried persimmons fruits. Persimmons especially unripe ones contain a high level of tannin, a chemical compound in persimmons that will react with the gastric acid in our stomach, polymerize, and form a stone-like mass called persimmon bezoar. Persimmon bezoar is often very hard and may lead to other gastrointestinal problems.
Drink cola: Break up Persimmon Bezoar in Young Girl
Drinking cola has been scientifically proven works to treat persimmon bezoar. She was asked to drink cola every day to soften and dissolve the bezoar in her stomach. After a few days, gastroscopy revealed that the bezoar has shrunk and softened. Doctors managed to cut it into pieces and remove them successfully.
Have you wondered why cola? The use of cola appeared to be a safe, convenient, and economically feasible treatment, effectively softening persimmon bezoar in the girl’s stomach. It is believed that the fine bubbles from the cola eat up the bezoar surface, slowly disintegrated, and soften it.
What does the research says?
There are many cases studies reported that cola is indeed effective and safe to treat persimmon bezoar. Here are the examples:
- A 82 -year -old male patient who suffered from upper abdominal pain and found a hard green 7cm bezoar in his abdomen. After giving cola, 500-1000ml a day for about 3 weeks, the bezoar decrease its size to 4cm and soften. Doctor managed to remove it successfully.
- A 41-year-old male patient with 3 huge bezoars in his stomach was given 2 cans of cola every 6 hours, the bezoars were soften and partially dissolved on the following day. The doctor direct endoscopic injected the cola into each bezoar and they were all dissolved in the end.
- A 73-year-old man with a large persimmon bezoar in his stomach, was treated orally with cola to soften and break up persimmon bezoar. Cola is proven safe, convenient and inexpensive treatment to manage gastric bezoar, but strict follow up must be made as small bezoar or fragment pieces may still left undissolved which can cause obstruction and leading to other complications.
- Cola can effectively dissolve gastric bezoar, as the first line treatment. 10 years studies (2002 – 2012), with 46 patients involved in this study, more than 90% of the patients were successfully treated with cola.
We shall not simply use cola to treat any suspected abdominal pain, consult our doctor to find out the cause of pain to avoid wrong treatment.
This is a piece of very useful information, worth sharing with your all.
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