Removing a 5-year "forgotten" fish bone in the bronchial

The foreign object removed

His medical history showed that the patient is suspected to have choked a foreign object into the airway after eating fish soup about 5 years ago, but he did not notice as he though he had coughed the fish bone out. Since then, he often coughed with sputum and period of difficulty breathing with ineffective treatment. 

On April 21, the patient had a bronchoscopy with soft tube to remove an object that was a piece of bone, about 12 x 1 3x 11mm in the left lower lobe bronchus. The process of getting the object was a bit difficult, because the object has been in the bronchial for a long time, causing pneumonia, increasing proliferation of granulation tissue. The doctor had to remove granulation tissue, then rinsed the bronchus then took out the foreign object.

By the morning of April 22, the patient felt better, had no coughing, no sputum or difficult breathing and was able to eat well.

According to doctors at Hue Central Hospital, airway obstruction could cause acute complications such as apnea or recurrent bronchopulmonary infections, which can seriously threaten patients' lives. The majority of neglected airway obstruction often causes recurrent bronchopulmonary infections, which happen after stopping antibiotics, lasting months and years.

 For many years, Hue Central Hospital has routinely used the technique of bronchoscopy with soft tubes to remove bronchial objects. This technique is less damaging and does not require general anesthesia, with high success rate of removing the object, over 95%.

News: Dong Van,

Photo: Provided by the Hospital