Foreign body in the esophagus

Abstract

A ten year retrospective survey of 346 cases of oesophageal foreign bodies is reported. Although coins were the most frequent foreign bodies in the pediatry group, meat was the most common offender in the material taken as a whole. Rigid oesophagoscopy in general anaesthesia was performed on 312 patients. A foreign body was removed in 281 cases (90%). Only one case of oesophageal cancer was discovered. The risk of iatrogenic perforation of the oesophagus was greatest in old patients who had a lump of meat stuck in the distal third of the oesophagus.