How did it get there? A coiled metal foreign body in an unusual cervical position

An unusual foreign body migrating through time and tissues

Background

Beside infections, foreign body incidences are amongst the most frequently encountered pathologies in pediatric otolaryngology. While inhaled foreign bodies represent an acute emergency, symptoms of ingested foreign bodies sometimes appear with some delay. Typically fishbones tend to go unnoticed in a first examination and become symptomatic by fever, odynodyspahgia and torticollis. Exceptionally, foreign bodies migrate and become manifest with a considerable delay.

Case report

We present a case of a young girl who presented with an unusual foreign body which migrated through the cervical tissues causing repeated cervical tumescence's before being diagnosed.

Conclusion

Repeated cervical abscesses or tumescence's in children or young patients should alert the treating physician to seek for an underlying pathology such as unnoticed foreign bodies or malformations (e.g. cysts). Further the scarce literature on these migrating foreign bodies is discussed.