'Bit' off more than he could chew: asymptomatic foreign body in the appendix.

This report details the case of a 69-year-old male who had presented to the emergency department at the suggestion of his dentist after ingesting a diamond-tipped drill bit during a routine dental procedure. Through the use of radiograph, computed tomography, and colonoscopy, the drill bit was determined to be lodged in the distal vermiform appendix. Throughout his clinical course, the patient remained asymptomatic but was monitored closely for signs of complications of a retained foreign body in the appendix. Gastroenterology and general surgery were consulted on the case but ultimately non-surgical approaches prevailed and the drill bit passed in the stool. This patient's case highlights the success of noninvasive measures for appendiceal foreign body removal.

Massage-like stroking produces analgesia in mice.

Chronic pain treatment remains a major challenge and pharmacological interventions are associated with important side effects. Manual medicine treatments such as massage, acupuncture, manipulation of the fascial system (MFS), and osteopathic manipulative treatments produce pain relief in humans, but the underlying mechanism is poorly understood limiting leverage and optimization of manual medicine techniques as safe pain therapy. To decipher the physiological mechanisms of manipulative medicine treatments, we have established a preclinical model. Here, we established a murine model of massage-like stroking (MLS)-induced analgesia. We characterized that the analgesia effects were present in both sexes, and were independent of the experimenters, handling, consciousness, and opioid receptors. MLS alleviates thermal pain in naive mice and postoperative pain hypersensitivity. This novel model will allow discovery of the physiological mechanisms involved in MLS-induced analgesia and identification of new therapeutic strategies.