MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis-area hospitals are seeing an uptick in cases of children swallowing magnets, mirroring a trend reported nationally after a ban on high-powered magnets was lifted.
M Health Fairview officials said its hospitals have treated an increase in the number of children who've ingested magnets, citing a U.S. Court of Appeals decision to overturn the high-powered magnets ban five years ago.
After they were available for sale again, calls to U.S. poison control centers about children and magnets surged more than 400%, according to a recent analysis of the National Poison Data System between 2008 and 2019. But during a five-year period that the magnets were removed from the market, the study found those calls decreased by 33% annually.
These magnets are often used in children's toys. Most of the cases identified in the study after the ban was lifted involved patients under age 6, the National Safety Council's Safety and Health Magazine noted.
According to M Health Fairview, high-powered magnets, when swallowed, often attach across the wall of an individual's gastrointestinal tract. When they're not removed immediately, the pressure can cause perforation, which can lead to intestinal leakage and infection.
"About half of all children who swallow these super strong magnets will require surgery for removal, and roughly one-third will suffer bowel perforations," said Dr. Boris Sudel, pediatric gastroenterologist with M Health Fairview and University of Minnesota Medical School. "Others will suffer severe injury with life-long complications, including bowel resections, and even death."
Sudel recommends against keeping such magnets at home.
