title: Oesophageal foreign bodies at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
abstract: A retrospective study was conducted of 97 patients with oesophageal foreign bodies (EFB). The patients were admitted to assess characteristics of EFB, modes of presentation and radiological and endoscopic findings. The patients were from the University Hospital of the West Indies and most (42%) were over the fourth decade of life. The commonest EFB were bones. A negative radiological finding was not a reliable means to select patients for endoscopy. Oesophagoscopy is a reliable method in the treatment of EFB impaction. There were no major complications or deaths.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Medicine Division, Department of Surgery, Radiology, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care and Tropical Medicine Research Institute The University Hospital of the West Indies, Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies. verz3us@yahoo.com
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chambers
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ashman
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Williams-Johnson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones; D004945:Esophagoscopy; D004947:Esophagus; D005260:Female; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014900:West Indies / Q000453:epidemiology