Vol.99 No.2 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 99 No. 2 February 2006
Fish-Bone Foreign Body in Extra Pharyngeal Space:
A Case Report
Shinpei Kada
(Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine)
Atsuhiro Yoshida and Masahiko Hayashi
(Shiga Medical Center for Adults)
A 66-year-old female patient presented with a history of sudden foreign-body sensation following the swallowing of a fish bone. Soft tissue X-rays could not show a foreign body in the neck. Computed axial tomography was done which showed a fish bone embedded in the extra pharyngeal space behind the left tonsil. Because the fish bone was located near the pharyngeal space and there were no inflammatory findings around the fish bone, we assumed that the fish bone could be removed by operating with a trans-oral approach. A left tonsillectomy was carried out and the fish bone was removed from the muscle tissue around the tonsil. Her foreign-body sensation was eliminated. To our knowledge, there have been 17 patients with extrapharyngeal fish bone foreign bodies. Among them, there were only 3 patients whose fish bones were removed by operating with a trans-oral approach. For trans-oral-removal, we suggest that inflammatory findings around the fish bone and accessibility are important considerations.
Key words : fish bone, extra pharyngeal foreign body, computed tomography (CT), trans-oral-removal