Incidental presentation of a button battery within a pharyngeal pouch: the first reported case

Description

An 88-year-old woman presented acutely to the ear, nose and throat (ENT) department at a District General Hospital with an unusual foreign body discovered on videofluoroscopy. This investigation had been organised by her general practitioner as the patient was experiencing progressive dysphagia with food regurgitation and weight loss. There was no history of chest or abdominal pain, haemoptysis or known foreign body ingestion. She had a background of polymyalgia rheumatica, ischaemic heart disease, pharyngeal pouch and wore bilateral hearing aids for presbycusis. During videofluoroscopy a circular, radiopaque foreign body was noted within the pharyngeal pouch resembling a button battery (figures 1 and 2). Given these unusual findings, the ENT team was urgently contacted by the speech and language practitioner for further assessment.

Figure 1

Videofluoroscopy image (lateral view) showing a foreign body resembling a button battery within a pharyngeal pouch.

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