Abstract
A 51-year-old female with multiple myeloma and a 79-year-old female with heart-failure accidentally swallowed their incomplete dentures with two hooks respectively. Esophagoscopically these foreign bodies were found in the thoracic esophagus, but the endoscopical removal of these dentures had to be discontinued, as one of two hooks (in the 1st case) or the sharp protrusion of the dental plate (in the 2 nd case) were so tightly impacted at the cricopharyngeal pinchcock that the operator could not withdraw the foreign bodies further. Other reasons why the authors gave up the endoscopical removal of these foreign bodies were the emaciation of the patients, a fear of pathological fractures during the endoscopy (in the 1st case) and the cardiac diseases of the 2nd patient.
The removal of the foreign bodies in each case was successfully carries out by external esophagoscopy. On these occasions the operator removed the foreign bodies through the incision wound of the esophagus, bringing the foreign bodies up to the cricopharyngeal pinchcock by oral esophagoscopy.
This method of removal of foreign body in the esophagus is characterized by
1) preventing the infection of the neck wound,
2) shortening the duration of operation and
3) simple removal of such kind of foreign body.
