title: Protrusion of a migrated fish bone in the neck.
abstract: Uningested fish bone swallowing is common, but protrusion of the unswallowed fish bone from the neck is very rare. We report a 3-cm fish bone, which was not diagnosed during the patient first visit at emergency room, resulting in a protrusion out of the patient's neck skin 21 days later after ingurgitation of the bone. The migrated fish bone was safety pulled out directly after obtaining computed tomography of the neck to make sure no soft tissue or major artery involved. Migration of ingested fish bone is an uncommon complication, which has the potential risk to cause morbidity and mortality. Therefore, if findings of physical examination, x-rays, or laryngoscope are negative, it is important to recheck the patient if sore throat persists. Obtaining a neck computed tomography or performing gastroendoscopy to rule out the possible mis-swallowing of fish bone should be warranted. To the authors' knowledge, such a case has not been previously reported in medical literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Trauma, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yuan-Chia
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Wei-Che
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Liang-Chi
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Chao-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hsing-Lin
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005548:Foreign-Body Migration / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009333:Neck / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017747:Seafood; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed