A coin as a tracheal foreign body for 30 years

A rare case of long-standing tracheal foreign body, a coin retained in the trachea for over 30 years, is presented. A 35-year-old female patient came to the hospital complaining of recurring cough and sensation of a lump in the throat since childhood. A round radiopaque shadow between the clavicles was found in routine chest X-ray film. She recalled swallowing a coin at about the age of five. Reviewing an old film taken for her cough problem at another hospital 11 years previously, we noted the same shadow at the same level. A rusty coin was removed through a ventilating bronchoscope from the trachea, where a narrow sulcus and some granulation tissue were found. Her complaints disappeared thereafter.