2017 Volume 30 Issue 1 Pages 61-66
Foreign bodies in the tongue occur relatively rarely and if they are buried in the tongue, it is difficult to diagnose those with inspection only. In addition, some cases require instruments to find foreign bodies because there are no landmarks in the tongue. We report herein on a case of a wire foreign body buried in the tongue muscle layer. A 70-year-old woman had noticed pain in the tongue and at the right submandibular area since eating croquettes. She was referred to our department because CT imaging showed an intraoral high density area. Our CT imaging taken with the mouth open revealed the position of the foreign body in her tongue muscle layer. We surgically removed the foreign body from her tongue. During the operation, we checked the position of the foreign body using fluoroscopic imaging with some X-ray non-transmissive landmarks. This is a rare case of a piece of wire buried in the tongue muscle layer, and intraoperative fluoroscopic imaging was useful in identifying the position of the foreign body.