Strange Compulsion

Pica is a medical term that refers to people who eat substances that are not nutritious like clay, dirt, paper or starch.  Lithophagia is the eating of rocks or pebbles.  The Xray above is from a 48 year old homeless man who came to the emergency department with abdominal pain, constipation and intermittent blood in his stool for 2 weeks.  The abdominal Xray showed small radio-opaque pebbles