Fishing Out a Bone From the Neck

Foreign body ingestion is a common medical issue in Asian populations. Fish bones are the most commonly ingested foreign bodies due to the practice of cooking fish whole with bones intact, unlike in Western countries where fish are typically prepared as fillets or patties. Patients who have swallowed fish bones usually present with foreign body sensations, odynophagia, and pricking sensations during deglutination. Fish bones can generally be removed in an outpatient setting, but in some cases, patients must be placed under general anesthesia, where rigid esophagoscopy is performed. In some cases, neck exploration is required to extricate the bone. Here, we report the case of a 71-year-old man who underwent neck exploration for a 2.1 cm fish bone lateral to his thyroid cartilage, penetrating the left thyroid lobe.