부산대학교 도서관

It has been reported that neck incision is required to remove an extra-pharyngeal foreign body because it is difficult to detect. Here we report a case with an extra-pharyngeal fish bone, which we could remove transorally using a Sato-type curved laryngoscope.The patient was a 72-year-old woman who developed swallowing pain after eating a flatfish and visited our hospital on the following day. A flexible endoscopic examination of the pharynx and larynx revealed a slight swelling in the right posterior wall of her hypopharynx. A CT examination showed a linear high density located in the submucosal layer of her hypopharynx at the level of the third cervical vertebra. She was diagnosed as having an extra-pharyngeal fish bone and underwent surgery under general anesthesia. We obtained a wide view of the hypopharynx using a Sato-type curved laryngoscope and incised the hypopharyngeal mucosa on the basis of CT findings. Then, we detected and removed the fish bone. The reasons for successful transoral removal of the extra-pharyngeal foreign body may have been the absence of infection due to the early presentation, the accurate identification of the location by CT examination, and a wide surgical view of the hypopharynx using a Sato-type curved laryngoscope.