New Delhi, April 3 Doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital successfully removed a denture lodged deep inside a man's food pipe using an advanced endoscopic procedure involving a laser cutter, helping the patient avoid a major surgery, officials said on Friday.
The patient was brought to the hospital with severe respiratory distress, throat pain, and difficulty in swallowing after he accidentally swallowed his denture, which got stuck just below the junction of the food pipe and windpipe in the upper esophagus, doctors at the hospital said.
He was also experiencing significant chest discomfort, they added.
Imaging studies confirmed that the dental prosthesis was firmly lodged at a delicate point in the food pipe, where its sharp metallic clasps posed a high risk of tearing the esophageal lining.
Describing the case as extremely challenging, Anil Arora, Chairman, Institute of Liver, Gastroenterology and Pancreaticobiliary Sciences (ILGPS), said the conventional removal methods carried a substantial risk of injury in this case.
"This was one of the most difficult foreign bodies we have encountered. Conventional removal techniques like foreign body forceps or a polypectomy snare carried a high risk of injury to the esophagus," Arora said.
After initial attempts using conventional forceps proved unsuccessful, the medical team decided to adopt an alternative endoscopic approach.
"Under precise endoscopic guidance, doctors used a laser beam to carefully fragment the impacted denture into smaller pieces inside the esophagus in order to disengage it from the esophageal lumen," a doctor at the hospital said.
A protective overtube was then inserted into the upper esophagus to shield the surrounding tissues from the sharp edges of the fragmented denture while each piece was safely extracted, he said.
Shrihari Anikhindi, consultant, gastroenterology, said the laser-assisted technique made it possible to remove the foreign body without open surgery.
"The laser allowed us to safely break the denture into smaller fragments. The overtube protected the normal esophagus from sharp edges, enabling us to remove the foreign body without resorting to open surgery, which has considerable morbidity," Anikhindi said.
According to the hospital, the patient recovered well after the procedure.