title: The Vulnerable Indian One Rupee Coin.
abstract: Coins are the most commonly ingested foreign body encountered in the pediatric population, with a peak incidence between 6 months and 3 years of age. Although some ingested coins may be aspirated, most coins pass through the alimentary tract without causing any complications. Coins in the esophagus causing symptoms require immediate removal. The management of asymptomatic coins has been a perplexing problem to the clinicians for decades. We recently managed an interesting case of an impacted Indian one rupee coin in the esophagus of a 13-year-old girl, by performing a simple yet novel technique, by using a conventional flexible endoscopic biopsy forceps. Further, reviewing the literature we inferred that the rounded, stainless steel Indian one rupee coin with a diameter of 25 mm, by itself seems to be vulnerable for impaction in the esophagus and therefore needs to be promptly addressed even if asymptomatic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krishnamurthy
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Oncology, Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Vijayalakshmi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramshankar
keywords: Coin; esophageal foreign body; flexible esophagoscopy