Article Text
Abstract
A 7-year-old girl presented to the emergency room (ER) with alleged history of aspiration of a toy magnet. The challenge was to safely extract the foreign body. A bronchoscopic approach with forceps, or Dormia basket, or Fogarty catheter, was considered, but these approaches had disadvantages, such as slipping or impaction of the object, and oxygen desaturation. Applying principles of removal of intraocular metallic objects in ophthalmologic surgery using magnetism, the object was removed with the help of another larger surface magnet. The location of the foreign body was confirmed by bronchoscopy. A Fogarty catheter was introduced distal to the object, under bronchoscopic guidance. A strong surface magnet was then placed on the surface of the chest and under C-arm guidance, the object was moved from the bronchus to the trachea. Once at the vocal cords, the Fogarty catheter was inflated to prevent it from slipping back and the magnet was extracted using forceps.
- paediatric surgery
- head and neck surgery
- emergency medicine
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Footnotes
Contributors SN: data compilation and analysis, and drafting of content. JJ: attending paediatric surgeon on the case. SBV: attending anaesthetist on the case. SR: attending paediatrician on the case.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Patient consent for publication Obtained.