Here is a gentleman who had a long history of a hiatal hernia and chronic benign esophageal stricture for which he had undegone dilations in the past. But, he had not seen his doctor for over 4 years and for the past few months had noticed occasional difficulty when swallowing. He presented to the Emergency Department with a 4 hour history of not being able to swallow since he had a plate of hot chicken wings 4 hours prior. After being sedated, the gastroscope was passed and we found an esophagus full of chicken as you can see. (Looks like white meat) It took 12 passes of the scope to pull out all the pieces of chicken. At the bottom, we found a large hot wing stuck in his stricture. Using a wire snare, it was pulled out and the blockage was relieved. Surgery was avoided by using the fiberoptic gastroscope. He was advised to consider periodic dilations to avoid another such episode in the future. Click here for more information.

Text & Images Courtesy of Three Rivers Endoscopy Center
© Dr. Robert Fusco, Three Rivers Endoscopy Center, All Rights Reserved