Fish bone foreign bodies in the pharynx and upper esophagus: evaluation with 64-slice MDCT

Fish bone (FB) is one of the common causes of foreign body impaction in the pharynx and esophagus.

To investigate the efficacy of 64-slice multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for the evaluation of pharynx and upper esophageal FB foreign bodies.

Sixty-six patients with suspected FB foreign body ingestion were examined by plain radiography (n = 40) and unenhanced MDCT (n = 66). We analyzed the presence, location, size, shape, and lying position of the foreign bodies.

On MDCT, 46 foreign bodies were detected. Among them, 45 were confirmed by endoscopy. The sensitivity of MDCT for the detection of foreign bodies was 100%, which was superior to that of the plain radiography (51.7%). The location of the foreign bodies was most common in the upper esophagus (n = 22, 47.8%), followed by pharyngoesophageal junction (n = 10, 21.7%), transjunctional (n = 7, 15.2%), hypopharynx (n = 5, 10.9%), and oropharynx (n = 2, 4.3%). Their longest length was 5.3-40.1 mm (mean, 21.3 mm). Thirty-three FBs (71.7%) were linear and 13 (28.3%) were flat in shape. They showed transverse (n = 23, 50.0%), parallel (n = 13, 28.3%), and oblique positions (n = 10, 21.7%) to the long axis of the pharynx and esophagus, respectively.

MDCT is useful for the evaluation of the pharynx and upper esophageal FB foreign bodies.