Preoperative use of ultrasonography to localize an ingested foreign body

We report a 9-year-old boy who had swallowed a small dressmaker's pin during an art & craft class. Confirmation of ingestion of the pin and its passage through the gut was achieved with abdominal radiography. When the pin had not passed after 8 days, and with increasing concern about the likelihood of perforation, US was used to locate its exact position to allow surgical removal. This case report illustrates the unique use of US to reveal the intraappendiceal location of an ingested foreign body, facilitating its surgical removal.