Cervical esophagotomy for an impacted denture: a case report

Abstract

We present the case of a 46-year-old woman with an impacted denture and an impending esophageal perforation. Her family physician initially missed the diagnosis but during a subsequent visit reviewed her x-ray and was able to see the shadow of the denture's wire attachment in her esophagus. The patient was then referred to a tertiary care hospital, where esophagoscopy confirmed the location of the denture, but the surgeon there was unable to remove it. Eighteen days after she had swallowed her denture, she was referred to our hospital. Attempts at removal via rigid esophagoscopy were unsuccessful, but the denture was successfully removed via a cervical esophagotomy. A Gastrograffin swallow performed 1 week postsurgically showed no extravasation of the contrast medium, and subsequent follow-ups were unremarkable. We conclude that cervical esophagotomy is a safe method for removing foreign bodies impacted in the cervical esophagus when they cannot be removed endoscopically.