[Pharyngoesophageal foreign bodies]

A review was made of 77 rigid esophagoscopies to remove a foreign body from the upper digestive tract. Mean age of patients was 59 years. Meat bones were the most frequent impacted foreign body and the cervical esophagus was the most frequent site of impactation. No foreign body was found in 22% of esophagoscopies, a high rate that could have been due to our lack of confidence in radiographic studies, which yield false positive and false negative information. Esophagoscopy is performed whenever patient-referred symptoms are clear. The only complications were three cases of major esophageal erosions without perforation and one pneumothorax. A case of intramural esophageal pseudodiverticulosis was found.