Abstract
We report here a case of serious nasal cavity tissue damage caused by a foreign substance, specifically, a button-shaped battery.
The patient was a three-year-old boy who inserted a button-shaped battery into his left nasal cavity. On examination, we found necrosis of the nasal mucosa, cartilage and bone. In addition, the nasal cavity structure was severely damaged. In a follow-up experiment, we inserted a similar button-shaped battery, pre-soaked in a salt solution, into a rabbit's nasal cavity and measured daily changes in PH and discharge over time. In addition, we assesed how much nasal cavity tissue was damaged in a pathological specimen.
We found that the chief factor mediating tissue damage, among those we tried, was strong base production with lowvoltage discharge. Under these conditions the nasal cavity is damaged in a short time.
