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Case Reports
. 2016 Apr 7:7:87-91.
doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2016.04.001. eCollection 2016 May.

Cervical esophagotomy for foreign body extraction - Case report and comprehensive review of the literature

Patrick Heger  1 , Tim F Weber  2 , Johannes Rehm  2 , Anita Pathil  3 , Frank Decker  4 , Peter Schemmer  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Cervical esophagotomy for foreign body extraction - Case report and comprehensive review of the literature

Patrick Heger et al. Ann Med Surg (Lond). .

Abstract

Introduction: Esophageal foreign bodies are an important and serious cause of morbidity and mortality in both children and adults. Due to the possibility of serious complications, i.e. perforation, necrosis, mediastinitis, and fistulation, rapid and accurate diagnostic measures with subsequent therapy are necessary.

Case report: We are reporting a case of a 55-year-old, mentally impaired patient that has swallowed a foreign body, which subsequently became lodged in his esophagus. Due to the fact that endoscopic removal was not possible and there was a high risk of complications such as esophageal perforation or mediastinitis in this case, we performed cervical esophagotomy and successfully extracted the foreign body. The patient showed an uneventful postoperative process and could be discharged on Day 11 after the operation.

Comprehensive review: Furthermore, we performed a systematic review of the literature to identify all studies that described a surgical approach through esophagotomy in cases of foreign body ingestion and found 11 publications describing the cases of 29 patients. These studies reported an overall complication rate of 17.2% and a mortality rate of 0%.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that esophagotomy could be a viable approach for the extraction of foreign bodies especially in some cases when endoscopic removal was not successful and the risk of esophageal perforation is high.

Keywords: Case report; Esophagotomy; Esophagus; Foreign body removal.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Evidence of a mass-forming circular lesion with predominant fluid-density involving the cervical esophagus just below the upper esophageal sphincter. Enlargement on the right side.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Purnonary infiltration (red arrows) of the upper and lower lobes of the left lung in the coronal and transversal CT scan (lung window) reconcilable with aspiration. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Flexible endoscopy of the esophagus showing the foreign body (plastic star) 15 cm from the alignment.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Intraoperative picture of the removal of the foreign body. Silicon band and stay sutures are seen. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Foreign body (5-point plastic star the size of 4–5 cm) after removal.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Management guideline for esophageal foreign bodies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Pelucchi S. Unusual foreign body in the upper cervical oesophagus: case report. Acta Otorhinolaryngol. Ital. 2007;27(1):38–40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Antonoff, M.B. and D. Kreisel, Esophageal foreign body: hooked fishing lure. Ann. Thorac. Surg.. 98(4): p. 1481. - PubMed
    1. Stewart, K.C., et al., Esophagotomy for incarcerated esophageal foreign bodies. Am. Surg.. 61(3): p. 252–253. - PubMed
    1. Cadiere, G.B. and J. Ansay, [Esophageal perforation caused by a foreign body. Apropos of a case report]. Rev. Medicale Brux.. 12(5): p. 173–178. - PubMed

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