An unusual case of a swallowed thermometer perforated in the mediastinum.
A 39-year-old woman, who was addicted to drugs, was admitted because of referred chest pain and dysphagia after deliberate ingestion of a thermometer in a suicide attempt 6 hours earlier. Rigid esophagoscopy was unrevealing. On awakening, the patient confessed that the thermometer had been swallowed more than a month be operated on and get narcotic pain medications. Her history disclosed multiple admissions and laparotomies after suicide attempts with swallowed thermometers in the last 3 years.
D000328:Adult; D003679:Deglutition; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D004945:Esophagoscopy / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005548:Foreign-Body Migration / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008482:Mediastinum / Q000293:injuries*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D013406:Suicide, Attempted; D013821:Thermometers