Nearly Missed Pharyngeal Foreign Body: A Three-Year-Old van Gogh

Foreign body injuries in the head and neck region can be life-threatening. Managing pediatric patients in this context may be increasingly challenging due to several medical and legal reasons. In order to optimize the management of foreign body injuries and to guide treatment procedures, various imaging techniques, with specific assets and liabilities, must be employed. Nevertheless, the "As Low As Reasonably Achievable'' principle must be kept in mind when managing pediatric patients since children are more radiosensitive than adults. Guidelines for imaging pediatric head traumas are provided by the American College of Radiology (ACR), relying on the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) severity classification. We report the case of a three-year-old child in whom a considerable delay occurred in diagnosing a foreign body impaction, due to an occult clinical presentation. In this case study, we focus on outlining the importance of considering advanced imaging investigations for children in the wake of traumatic events.