HYDERABAD: For the first time in the world, a foreign body was removed from the food pipe using laser which is used to break kidney stones at Care Hospitals here.After a 30-year-old man came to the hospital complaining of difficulty in swallowing, it was found that a mutton bone piece was stuck in the upper part of the food pipe.
Dr N Vishnu Swaroop Reddy, head of Department of ENT, said,” The ENT team along with gastroenterology team attempted to remove the bone piece using an endoscope, but the rugged bone piece was lying horizontally in the food pipe impinging onto the wall of the food pipe. Forcible removal might have caused tear in the wall of the food pipe leading to life-threatening complications.
Hence, it was decided to withhold the procedure and to intervene next day using Holmium-Yag Laser. Our plan was to break the mutton bone into two pieces using the laser, which would facilitate the safer removal of foreign body.”
Dr Bhavani Raju, senior consultant, Gastroenterology, said that gastroenterology and urology teams succeeded in partially breaking the bone piece with the laser. However, a bridge of bone was left, since there was risk of laser burn to the walls of the food pipe. The remaining bridge of bone was crushed, breaking it into 2 pieces using ENT endoscope and instruments. Finally, the foreign body was removed successfully without any complications and without any external cuts in the neck or the chest.