Unusual Intra-Thyroid Migration of Ingested Fish Bone: A Case Report and Literature Review

Trans-esophageal migration of foreign bodies is a rare but serious complication of vulnerable foreign bodies. This clinical case is about a 37-year-old female patient, with a history of foreign body ingestion eight (08) months ago, received for anterior cervical swelling evolving since about seven (07) months ago. The diagnosis of thyroid nodule was evoked on clinical examination and explored by neck ultrasound which confirmed the thyroid nodule and highlighted the presence of an intra-thyroid fish bone. The extraction was carried out by cervicotomy under general anesthesia after fine needle markup and the evolution under medical treatment was favorable after 03 weeks. Extra-digestive migrations of ingested foreign bodies constitute often a source of diagnostic wandering and therapeutic difficulties due to their polymorphous clinical manifestations. This was the case in our context where it was confused with an authentic thyroid pathology. Its take of care often imposed neck surgery which could be avoided by earlier endoscopy. Vulnerable foreign bodies of the esophagus must imperatively be extracted for avoiding trans-esophageal migrating.