Doctors at Kent and Canterbury Hospital have removed almost 80 unusual objects from patients in the past three years - including jewellery, stones and a sex toy.

Figures from the East Kent Hospitals Trust show 78 procedures were carried out to remove lodged items between April 2010 and June 2013.

Among the strangest was a sponge extracted from a nostril in May 2011, two rings taken from a stomach in September 2012 and tablet powder and wax from an ear in November 2011.

The most uncomfortable procedures include the removal of a stimulator from a patient’s rectum in May 2011 and 34 beads dislodged from a urethra in July 2012.

More than a dozen operations were for food obstructions, referred to as steakhouse syndrome, where food is either removed from the oseophagus or pushed down into the stomach.

The figures - obtained through the Freedom of Information request - also reveal how some patients needed to have stitches removed after they had been left in during operations.

In December, a retained stitch was taken out of a bladder, while a lens was removed from an eye following cataract surgery in September 2012.

Another included a patient’s wife cutting off the end of a cannula that was left in a man’s arm after an MRI scan in June 2012.

Doctors also removed a ball bearing from a nostril and descaler which had splashed into a patient’s eye in August 2012, as well as super glue and an embedded ear stud from ears in October 2010 and September 2012.

According to medical journals, ingesting foreign body or objects is most commonly a problem for young children aged from six months to five years old.

In the most serious cases obstructions can be life threatening. For more information and to read about prevention techniques visit www.nhs.uk.

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