Evidence Hub

Guide to extraluminal fish bone retrieval with serial computed tomography scans: a case series

Ting-Ting Yew, Ing Tang, L. Lim, Yuanzhi Cheah, Shiong Leong Yew

Journal of Medical Case Reports, 2024

Abstract

Fish bone ingestion is commonly encountered in emergency department. It poses a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge particularly when it migrates extraluminally, necessitating a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach for successful management. Here we reported four cases of extraluminal fish bone. The first patient was a 68-year-old Chinese man who had odynophagia shortly after a meal involving fish. The second was a 50-year-old Iban man who reported a sharp throat pain after consuming fish 1 day prior. The third patient was a 55-year-old Malay woman who developed throat pain and odynophagia after consuming fish 1 day earlier. The fourth patient, a 70 year-old Iban man, presented late with odynophagia, neck pain, swelling, and fever 1 week after fish bone ingestion. These unintentional fish bone ingestions faced challenges and required repeat computed tomography scans using multiplanar reconstruction in guiding the surgical removal of the fish bone. We underscore the significance of multiplanar reconstruction in pinpointing the fish bone’s location, demonstrating the migratory route, and devising an accurate surgical plan.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a case series, done in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free