Images in Clinical Medicine

Inhaled Foreign Body

Syed Mohammad Tariq, M.R.C.P., and Jojy George, M.R.C.P.

N Engl J Med 2004; 351:e8August 26, 2004

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Article

Many Arab women wear a head scarf, termed the lahaaf or hejaab. It is usually secured around the head and neck with one or two pins. A 20-year-old Arab woman presented after having accidentally inhaled a pin as she adjusted her lahaaf while holding the pin in her mouth. Posteroanterior and lateral chest radiographs (Panels A and B, respectively) showed the pin in a bronchus of the left lower lobe (arrow in each panel). A fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed. The pin was seen in the distal part of the left-lower-lobe bronchus, with the pinhead lodged in the posterior segment. The pin was removed endoscopically, without adverse consequences.

Syed Mohammad Tariq, M.R.C.P.
Jojy George, M.R.C.P.
Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman