Case Report
A 65-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a complaint of
abdominal pain. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed multilayer
arc-like high-density objects in the stomach (Figure A, yellow arrows).
The patient had eaten several pieces of 30-mm mochi in a Japanese
traditional soup dish without enough chewing. Mochi is made of
short-grain japonica glutinous rice that becomes extremely sticky after
boiling or toasting. It is an indispensable food in Japan, especially in
the New Year’s holiday but has caused numerous deaths by suffocation
among elderly people every year because of its stickiness. In the
present case, emergency endoscopy revealed 10 completely intact round
mochi (Figure B), which remained intact after 5 days. The stomach
temperature stiffens mochi to an extent indissoluble by gastric juice.
We endoscopically sliced the mochi to <10 mm by snaring
without electrical current (Figure C). Digestive enzyme (Excelase 3.0
g/day, Meiji Seika Pharma Holdings Co, Ltd) was prescribed. Two days
after snare cutting, endoscopy revealed that all the mochi had
disappeared, and abdominal CT revealed no residual mochi in the
intestine. Ten-millimeter mochi can be drained to the duodenum from the
pylorus ring, where it can then be dissolved by bile and pancreatic
juice [1].