Endobronchial foreign body removed by rigid bronchoscopy after 39 years
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Systematic Bronchoscopy: the Four Landmarks Approach
Published on: June 23, 2023
Yoshihito Kogure1, Masahide Oki, Hideo Saka
1Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagoya Medical Center, 4-1-1 Sannomaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya 460-0001, Japan. yo-kogure@umin.ac.jp
Abstract:
A 64-year-old man accidentally fell into a wood chip tank and nearly suffocated in 1970. He frequently suffered from pneumonia after reaching the age of 40. In 2009, he suffered from pneumonia again, and a chest computed tomography revealed a foreign body in the left main stem bronchus. Flexible bronchoscopy showed a wood chip lodged firmly in his bronchus. Removal using a flexible bronchoscope was attempted twice but failed. Rigid bronchoscopy was then performed under general anesthesia, and the chip was successfully extracted by cutting it in two using rigid scissors.
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