Abstract
A 63-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a symptom of dysphagia since he had eaten tangle a week before. He couldn't drink even water, so he lost ten kilograms for a week. By roentgenologic examination, we found a hen's egg sized defect like an esophageal tumor. We also performed an esophagofiberscopic examination, and found a foreign body composed of tangle and noodles of devil's-tongue, which looked like an esophageal tumor.
We couldn't extract the foreign body by esophagoscopic techniques because of its softness, then we tried to destroy the foreign body into pieces with a grasping forceps (bascket) which was inserted into the biopsy channel of the esophagofiberscope, then washed them away with water. After the removal the esophagus was examined fluoroscopically and endoscopicallly, but neither functional nor organic stenosis was there.
These foreign bodies are relatively rare in Japan. In the past literature, we found 3 cases of esophageal foreign bodies composed of tangle without stenosis in the esophagus.
