Common carotid perforation secondary to an ingested fish bone in a child. Case report

Abstract

Foreign body ingestion is a common consultation for the pediatric surgeon. Only 1% of the cases require open surgical approach and some have rare but severe complications as vascular fistulas to the esophagus and hypopharynx. We are presenting a case of a nine-year-old girl referred from the Colombian Amazon region. The patient had ingested a foreign body three days earlier, which required surgical exploration. A fish bone was found lodged in the anterior wall of the common carotid artery and had perforated the hypopharynx. Direct carotid and hypopharynx suture repair was performed with interposition of a muscle flap between the suture lines. Patient recovered uneventfully without complications during follow up.

Keywords

• Foreign body
• Vascular perforation
• Fish bone