EE (18), a foreign national living in Söke, was brought to Aydın Adnan Menderes University (ADÜ) Hospital by ambulance with the complaint of swallowing a dinner fork. The patient, whose x-ray was taken here, was found to have an 18-centimeter fork in his esophagus.
Experts tried to remove the fork from the mouth by performing endoscopy. However, due to the possibility of damaging the food and trachea, it was decided to cut the stomach and remove the fork.
ADÜ Faculty of Medicine, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Lecturer Dr. Salih Çokpınar and General Surgery Department Dr. In the operation coordinated by Faculty Member Akay Edizsoy, an incision was made in the stomach and the fork was removed.
The patient, who remained in intensive care for a while, was taken to the service after his condition improved.
Dr. Edizsoy said that cases of swallowing small objects such as coins, pins and nails are common, but cases of swallowing a large object such as a fork are very rare.
Stating that he was surprised when he first heard about the case, Edizsoy said, “When I first heard about this case, which occurred as a large fork being completely swallowed, I thought it was not true. The patient was 18 years old and a foreign national. We thought there might be misunderstandings because his Turkish was a little weak. But when we took the film of the patient, he was actually swallowing a fork.” “We saw that it was in the esophagus.” he said.
“IT CANNOT BE HOLDED LIKE A NAIL, LIKE A NEEDLE AND PULLED”
Emphasizing that esophageal injury can result in death, Edizsoy continued as follows:
“That’s why we were most worried. But we saw through endoscopy that there was no serious injury. It could not be removed by endoscopy because it was quite large and not suitable for endoscopic instruments. Since this is a large dinner fork, it has its own weight. It is like a nail, like a needle. “It cannot be held and pulled out. Therefore, we followed a strategy of reaching the stomach through an incision in the abdomen and removing it from inside the stomach. With this surgery, we were able to remove this fork from there.”
“IT IS UNUSUAL FOR SUCH A LARGE OBJECT TO BE SWALLOWED”
Pointing out that they will present this case to the scientific world, Edizsoy said, “There are many cases of foreign body ingestion in the literature, but there are not many unusual objects like this. That is why we are thinking of sharing this scientifically with our other colleagues. We will write an article on this subject. It is this big.” “It is unusual for an object to be swallowed; I have never experienced such an object being swallowed.” he said.
Edizsoy stated that the patient’s health condition is good and added that although the life risk is high, they are happy that the patient recovered without any bad outcome.
AA