Airway foreign bodies may cause recurrent pneumonia and atelectasis, which could be fatal; therefore, early diagnosis and removal are important. We report the case of a 76-year-old man who underwent total laryngectomy for laryngeal cancer (cT3N0M0) who presented with a foreign body (T-tube) lodged in his airway. Postoperatively, the permanent tracheostomy was observed to be stenotic, and we inserted a T-tube to maintain patency of the tracheostomy. We observed a gradual increase in sputum accumulation, necessitating frequent suctioning. Follow-up computed tomography performed a few weeks later for comorbid interstitial pneumonia revealed a foreign body in the left main bronchus. We performed bronchoscopy for removal of the bronchial foreign body, which proved to be the T-tube.
Although a T-tube is conventionally used to maintain a permanent tracheostomy, it is not approved for maintenance of permanent tracheostomy patency.
The T-tube is a simple and convenient device used in surgical practice; however, surgeons should be mindful of the risks and complications of T-tube lodgment in the airway.
