Bezoar
mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system
A bezoar stone (, BEE-zor) is a mass often found trapped in the gastrointestinal system, though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system.
There are several varieties of bezoar, some of which have inorganic constituents and others organic. The term has both modern (medical, scientific) and traditional usage.
Types
By content
Food boluses (or boli; singular bolus) have the archaic and positive meaning of bezoar, and are composed of loose aggregates of food items such as seeds, fruit pith, or pits, as well as other types of items such as shellac, bubble gum, soil, and concretions of some medications.
Lactobezoars are a specific type of food bezoar consisting of inspissated milk. It is most commonly seen in premature infants receiving formula foods.
Pharmacobezoars (or medication bezoars) are mostly tablets or semiliquid masses of drugs, normally found following an overdose of sustained-release medications.
Pseudobezoars are man-made ingestible, permeable, expandable implements that can swell in the stomach or in the intestines and stay inflated for a certain period of time, during which they perform particular functions, such as reducing gastric volume.
Phytobezoars are composed of indigestible plant material (e.g., cellulose), and are frequently reported in patients with impaired digestion and decreased gastric motility.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bezoar” as mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q851415. The Library of Congress control number is sh85013521. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bezoar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.