Abstract
Pharyngeal foreign bodies are a disease encountered daily, but on rare occasions, they may find their way outside the pharyngeal cavity. We report a case in which a bone foreign body that had penetrated the thyroid gland after ingesting a meal was removed using intraoperative ultrasound through an external neck incision.
The case was a 59-year-old woman with the chief complaint of right neck pain. Upon re-examination on the 52nd day after the onset of symptoms, a CT scan revealed a linear calcified shadow in the right lobe of the thyroid gland, and an ultrasound scan revealed a linear hyperechoic image and a bone foreign body outside the pharyngeal cavity was diagnosed and surgical removal was performed. It was difficult to identify the foreign body due to abscess and granulation formation around the thyroid gland. Still, by confirming a linear hyperechoic image within the right lobe of the thyroid using intraoperative ultrasound, it was possible to identify the foreign body, which was removed together with the right lobe. Intraoperative ultrasound was simple and useful in identifying the foreign body and determining the extraction site.
