A few years ago a 59-year-old man walked into a hospital in eastern France and asked to see a doctor. He had no symptoms, but said he had been advised to get an X-ray. This is it:
A lateral view gives a slightly clearer view of a foreign body in the lower lobe of the left lung. What could it be?
A dental drill bit! The patient explained that a little earlier his dentist had accidentally dropped it in his mouth and he had inhaled it. It had caused no immediate trouble but the dentist, aghast, told him he needed to get it extracted ASAP. 😱
An initial attempt to visualise it with a flexible bronchoscope failed, but it was eventually located using a smaller paediatric bronchoscope. It was deep in the lung but luckily had fallen with the drill bit uppermost - it might easily have caused massive haemorrhage.
Extraction using forceps and flexible bronchoscope was straightforward - which is just as well. This is not the sort of object you want inside your lung. The patient was able to return home, in good health, 24 hours later.
The full case history (in French) is here: em-consulte.com/revmalrespir/a…
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