[The danger of removing some esophageal foreign bodies by fiber optics]

The authors presented 4 cases of patients with a foreign body in the esophagus, which has been tried to remove by means of fiberoscopy and rigid esophagoscopy. The fiberoptic endoscopy has failed either as a diagnostic method or as a therapeutic one. The classical esophagoscopy has turned out to be much better in both cases. The fiberoscopy is a valuable diagnostic and therapeutic procedure in a lot of diseases of digestive tract. Especially it is useful in order to remove some foreign bodies from the esophagus, but at the same time it fails when removing big foreign bodies (e.g. parts of false teeth, large bones). In these cases rigid esophagoscopy is the only effective method when performed under endotracheal anesthesia and with esophageal muscles relaxation.