This nice woman with mild asthma lost a tooth crown and aspirated it as she was about to have lunch.
Check out the CxR. It was lodged at the first branching of the R bronchus intermedius with the smooth side (the shiny top of the crown) up towards us. Unfortunately I was using an optic (as opposed to digital, I know they are all "optic") scope and couldn't take a picture. I did snap a picture of the crown after removal with the basket on the side.
We did not have a bronch basket handy so an OR gallstone basket was just the perfect sixe.
You gave it back to her, right?
ReplyDeleteGruntDoc
Yes, she is taking it back to her dentist.
ReplyDeletehow did u find this out? she had hemoptysis? or she was aware that she ¨swallowed¨ the crown?
ReplyDeleteShe choked and could tell that she had aspirated it. She came in through the ER right after the episode.
ReplyDeleteAfter 7 years of working in the ER nothing surprises me. We just recently had a psych patient aspirate a star wars figure! the patient had Mounier Kuhn syndrome so the enlarged trachea made it possible. It was truly amazing! Hans Solo was in the right main stem bronchus!
ReplyDelete