title: Removal of a retropharyngeal foreign body in a horse, with the aid of ultrasonography during surgery.
abstract: Diagnostic ultrasonography was used during surgery to assist in the removal of a piece of wire from the retropharyngeal region. A 3-year-old Quarter Horse mare was referred with dysphagia of 2 days' duration. Radiography revealed a 9-cm piece of wire located caudodorsal to the larynx. A ventral surgical approach was performed, dissecting along the right side of the larynx and trachea. The surgical field was filled with 0.85% sterile physiologic saline solution. A 5 MHz-mm sector scanner probe immersed in the fluid was able to locate the wire and facilitate the direction and depth of dissection to where the wire was identified and removed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Anesthesiology, Radiology, and Surgery, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: French
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Pharr
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Fretz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery / Q000662:veterinary*; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D006736:Horses; D010614:Pharynx; D011859:Radiography; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000662:veterinary*