Endobronchial foreign body removed by rigid bronchoscopy after 39 years.
A 64-year-old man accidentally fell into a wood chip tank and nearly suffocated in 1970. He frequently suffered from pneumonia after reaching the age of 40. In 2009, he suffered from pneumonia again, and a chest computed tomography revealed a foreign body in the left main stem bronchus. Flexible bronchoscopy showed a wood chip lodged firmly in his bronchus. Removal using a flexible bronchoscope was attempted twice but failed. Rigid bronchoscopy was then performed under general anesthesia, and the chip was successfully extracted by cutting it in two using rigid scissors.
Kogure
Yoshihito
Y
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagoya Medical Center, 4-1-1 Sannomaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya 460-0001, Japan. yo-kogure@umin.ac.jp
Oki
Masahide
M
Saka
Hideo
H
D000059:Accidents; D000328:Adult; D001980:Bronchi / Q000601:surgery*; D001995:Bronchography; D020680:Bronchoscopes; D001999:Bronchoscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000209:etiology; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome