An unusual case of a swallowed thermometer perforated in the mediastinum.

Sakellaridis, Timothy; Potaris, Konstantinos; Mallios, Dimitrios; Sepsas, Evangellos · Ann Thorac Surg · 2008

case_report · Level V

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Abstract

A 39-year-old woman, who was addicted to drugs, was admitted because of referred chest pain and dysphagia after deliberate ingestion of a thermometer in a suicide attempt 6 hours earlier. Rigid esophagoscopy was unrevealing. On awakening, the patient confessed that the thermometer had been swallowed more than a month be operated on and get narcotic pain medications. Her history disclosed multiple admissions and laparotomies after suicide attempts with swallowed thermometers in the last 3 years.

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