[Foreign bodies in the esophagus of adults]

A prospective descriptive observational study was made to determine the incidence of esophageal foreign bodies in adults who had been admitted to the Manual Ascunce Domenech teaching hospital of Camaguey, Cuba in the period from 1 September 1997 to 31 August 1998. The highest frequency of patients with this diagnosis was in 31 to 50 year-old men. Dysphagia and salivary retention in the pyriform sinuses were the prevalent symptoms. The state of the oral cavity was poor in 82.50% of patients. The foreign body was removed in the first 24 hours in 83.33% of patients. The radiological diagnosis was positive in 75% of patients. The upper third was the most common location in radiological and endoscopic studies. Fish bones were the prevalent foreign body. A quarter of the patients had complications and stable esophagoscopy was used to extract the foreign body in 96.67% of cases.