Abstract
This study reports statistic results for 237 cases of esophageal foreign bodies during 21 years from 1985 to 2005, which indicated shifts in both foreign body types and their removal method. The mean age was 49.5 years old, with a range from 8 months to 91 years (90 males, 147 females). Most esophageal foreign bodies consisted of press-through-packages (PTPs) (37.6%), fish bones (24.5%), coins (13.1%) or artificial teeth (8.0%). Coins, which had accounted for a large percentage in previous reports, were third in frequency in the present study. In age distribution, there were two peaks : one with children under 10 years old, the other in persons over 50 years old. Especially in children, coins accounted for a high percentage. PTPs, fish bones, artificial teeth and pieces of meat, in that order, were most prevalent in older people. These foreign bodies were lodged at the cricoid narrowing (84.4%).
Removal of the foreign bodies was attempted using direct esophagoscopy under general anesthesia in 79.7% of the cases (187 of 237). However, since 2003 removal by endoscopy for the upper digestive tract has been increasing gradually up to 82.9% (29 of 35 cases). We postulate that the change in removal method from direct esophagoscopy to endoscopy owes to progress in devices equipped with endoscopy.
