On Ingestion of Razor Blades

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Abstract
To the Editor:— I have observed an interesting phenomenon which occurred since the two recent descriptions of razor blade ingestion (206: 1582, 1968) (207:1719, 1969). A 25-year-old male prisoner, under my care, ingested a whole double-edge safety razor blade after wrapping it in paper. An abdominal flat plate confirmed this, unequivocally. Daily x-ray films were obtained. On the sixth day, we were amazed to note that the blade had very definitely been broken in half. The two halves remained in close apposition to each other during the remainder of their journey through the bowel and were passed together, with no difficulty, in a bowel movement two days later. Two previous stools were positive for occult blood, but the hematocrit reading remained stable and close observation revealed no other intraabdominal signs or symptoms during this episode. This same inmate has ingested broken razor blades "10 or 12 times" over the

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