Razor Blade Removal from the Cervical Esophagus Utilizing a Novel Modification of the Overtube / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Foreign bodies in the upper esophagus should be removed as soon as possible to avoid serious complications. These foreign bodies can penetrate the bowel wall and cause severe complications. The peristalsis of the esophagus is not strong enough to prevent it from retaining swallowed objects. Hence, perforation from a foreign body is more likely to occur in the esophagus than in the rest of the gastrointestinal tract. A razor blade is a rare foreign body of the esophagus. Its sharpness and large size make it difficult to remove. A razor blade was very firmly impacted in the esophageal wall in our case, and the razor blade had not moved from the upper esophagus. A standard overtube has limitations to remove a razor blade inside the overtube's lumen. We report here on a case of using a wedge resected overtube made it possible to successfully extract a razor blade and no serious complications occurred after extraction of the razor blade.

A Case of Removing an Esophageal Sharp Foreign Body Using a Surgical Glove / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Foreign bodies with a sharp margin in the esophagus are often associated with serious complications, such as bleeding, perforation and mediastinitis in the middle of endoscopic removal, as well as impaction in the esophagus wall. Therefore, safe extraction for such patients is essential. The techniques that are performed with an endoscope have been designed with using a protector hood and overtube. Yet the former is not available in Korea, and the later is uncomfortable and limited in diameter. Press-through-packs (PTPs) are commonly used as a package for drugs and they also usually cause esophageal impaction because they have sharp edges. We report here on a case of an impacted PTP in the upper esophagus, and this was successfully extracted endoscopically with using a surgical glove, which is a better safe alternative to above mentioned removal items.