Foreign body in the oesophagus.

Abstract

Children and infants are apt to swallow a multitude of articles, such as beads, buttons, hair, coins, toys, fruit stones, and so on. For the most part the swallowed objects, depending of course on their size and shape, pass through the alimentary tract and are excreted without causing undue harm to the patient; however, on occasion, even a smooth swallowed, object can be the cause of dire effects, as in the patient whose history is reported here.