Abstract
We encountered a case in whom a needle had pierced the mouth during dental treatment while the patient was under the effect of a local anesthetic. The foreign body could not be visually confirmed, however, the object lodged in the pterygoid muscle could be extracted from the mouth with the use of radioscopy during surgery.
The presence of the foreign object was confirmed on a simple X-ray, but its location could not be accurately confirmed. A 20-mm needle-shaped shadow was recognized on CT, lodged partially in the levator veli palatini muscle from the inner right pterygoid muscle. It was judged that removal of the object would be difficult using an external cervical incision, therefore, the oral approach was employed in conjunction with radioscopy during surgery to extricate the foreign object.
Although there are many kinds of pharyngeal and laryngeal foreign objects, during diagnosis, physicians should be mindful of the possibility that a foreign object might exist even if it cannot be confirmed on visual inspection by endoscopy.
