In an unusual medical case, doctors removed more than 100 fish bones lodged in a man's rectum after he feasted on fish.
The sexagenarian from Sichuan Province a week earlier had eaten two servings of boiled carp - bones and all, thinking he would pass them.
However, he ended up seeking medical attention on Thursday after complaining of acute pain while defecating.
A CT scan showed tight clusters of fish bones stuck in his rectum. In the two-hour procedure, doctors worked to pull around 100 of the needle-like bones from the man's anus.
"A patient with this many fish bones was a first for us," said Huang Zhiyin, a doctor from West China Hospital of Sichuan University. "The most we've had to remove was around 10 or so."
Huang explained it was a tricky procedure with a high risk of blood loss.
"Because there were so many bones and his rectum was severely swollen, we couldn't get them all at once," he said. "So we had him return home to rest a few days to see if he'd pass the rest on his own."