A case of pharyngeal injury in a patient with swallowed toothbrush: a case report

BMC Research Notes

Jun-Hee Park¹  Nam-Yong Do¹  Sung-Il Cho¹  Yeon-Hoo Kim¹ 

[1] Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Chosun University, 365 Pilmun-daero, Dong-gu, Gwanju 501-717, South Korea

关键词: Hypopharynx perforation;    Foreign body;    Toothbrush;   

Others  :  1125683
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-788

 received in 2014-07-17, accepted in 2014-10-22,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Otolaryngologists encounter cases of various foreign bodies in the oral and pharyngeal regions. One commonly found foreign body is a fish bone, ingested in most cases by carelessness or an accident. These foreign materials are removed by endoscopy or through a simple procedure. However, hypopharyngeal damage is rarely caused by a foreign body in the pharynx following the swallowing of a toothbrush.

Case presentation

A 44-year-old Asian male visited the emergency room with chief complaints of intraoral pain and dysphagia that had started on the same day. The patient had paranoid-type schizophrenia that began 10 years ago; he had been hospitalized and was being treated at another clinic, and was transferred to the emergency room by the medical staff after swallowing a toothbrush. We successfully removed a toothbrush located within the pharynx of a patient with a history of a psychologic disorder via surgery and conservative treatment.

Conclusion

The case with this patient, and a rapid diagnosis as well as treatment is imperative. The presence and state of a foreign body must be determined through a careful physical examination and imaging, followed by the immediate removal of the foreign body, all while keeping in mind the possibility of accompanying damage to nearby tissues.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Kim et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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