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

• Main Authors: Santiago Correa, Juan Javier Valero, Juan Pablo Torres, Fernando Fierro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2016-05-01
• Series: Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports
• Subjects: Foreign body; Vascular perforation; Fish bone
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213576615300117

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.