Bezoars: a special cause of ileal obstruction in mentally retarded patients.

Abdominal symptoms in mentally retarded patients may pose difficult diagnostic problems due to an unreliable history of disease and incooperation of the patients. The case histories are presented of three patients with bezoars in the ileum. Delayed diagnosis and signs of peritonitis necessitated emergency surgery. All patients could successfully be treated by small bowel resection and primary anastomosis. In mentally retarded patients with abdominal pain a bezoar must be considered.