Two Cases of Unusual Foreign Body

Case 1: Foreign Body in the Retropharyngeal Space Thirteen year-old boy complained disphagia due to lancinating pain in the pharynx, originated just after eating bread and jelly packed in a glass bottle. Swelling in the neck on the right side was also noticed. X-ray examination revealed a small opaque spot in the neck at the level of the right piriform sinus, which could not be detected by laryngomicro-examination through a suspension laryngoscope. Extra-luminal foreign body was highly suspected by multidimension image-amplifier. Surgery through an oblique skin incision succeeded in extracting a piece of glass located in the retropharyngeal space with a massive hematoma. The piece matched exactly to the defect of the bottle of jelly. Case 2: An Over-looked Foreign Body in the Esophagus Fifty-one year-old man was sent to our hospital to reconstruct the maxillo-mandibular fractures two weeks after the first-aid therapy for the traffic accident in the other hospital. He was nourished by nasal tube feedings, as complained disphagia due to disability of mastication. We experienced no difficulties in inserting a feeding tube three times before and after operation. He discharged on the twentythird postoperative day, when he did not complain disphagia any more. Three months later he felt some difficulty in swallowing bulky food. X-ray studies revealed a foreign body with a claw like shadow lodged in the upper portion of the esophagus. On esophagoscopy the foreign body was revealed at the entrance of esophagus. Though traction upon it threatened to damage the esophageal wall, we succeeded in extracting it by gentle manipulation under local anaesthesia. The foreign body was a piece of dental plate of maxilla staying for about four months in the cervical esophagus.