Foreign body perforation of the sigmoid simulating carcinoma

A case history is presented of a patient in whom a swallowed fragment of toothpick perforated the sigmoid and entered a corpus luteum cyst of the left ovary. The prolonged symptomatology, anemia and x-ray evidence of an obstructive lesion led to a preoperative diagnosis of carcinoma of the sigmoid. At operation the perforated bowel and ovarian cyst were found involved in a hard yellow mass. Tissue from the mass revealed a unique reaction due to the response of the lutein cells to chronic irritation.