A Pill Turned into a Foreign Body in a Patient in a Hurry

M. Tuncer; Y. Erzin; A. F. Celik; U. Korman; N. Mandel; E. Oktay

doi:10.1055/s-2001-14254

Endoscopy, Table of Contents

Endoscopy 2001; 33(5): 472
DOI: 10.1055/s-2001-14254

Images in Focus

A Pill Turned into a Foreign Body in a Patient in a Hurry

M. Tuncer ¹ , Y. Erzin ¹ , A. F. Celik ¹ , U. Korman ² , N. Mandel ¹ , E. Oktay ¹

¹ Dept. of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
² Dept. of Radiology, Division of Gastroenterology, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Full Text

PDF Download

Figure 1A 55-year-old woman was referred to our endoscopy unit with a 1-month history of continuous retrosternal pain, dysphagia, and odynophagia located in the upper half of the esophagus. She had been suf- fering from these symptoms after swallowing three pills at once because of a troublesome headache. As she was in a hurry, she did not notice that one of them was still in its plastic cover. On barium meal examination, the pill was seen as a sharply radiolucent, round, filling defect (indicated by black arrowhead) in the upper thoracic esophagus. It was removed by endoscopy.

Figure 2The size of the plastic-covered pill, 2 cm in diameter.

Figures

Figure 1A 55-year-old woman was referred to our endoscopy unit with a 1-month history of continuous retrosternal pain, dysphagia, and odynophagia located in the upper half of the esophagus. She had been suf- fering from these symptoms after swallowing three pills at once because of a troublesome headache. As she was in a hurry, she did not notice that one of them was still in its plastic cover. On barium meal examination, the pill was seen as a sharply radiolucent, round, filling defect (indicated by black arrowhead) in the upper thoracic esophagus. It was removed by endoscopy.

Figure 2The size of the plastic-covered pill, 2 cm in diameter.