The man for 20 years has a pig bone in his lungs

On the morning of May 27, Cho Ray Hospital (HCMC) said that he had just saved a man (50 years old, living in Kien Giang) who had a piggy bank in his lungs for the past 20 years.

20 years ago, he choked on a pigtail bone, choking on his airway. The local hospital took a chest X-ray but found no bone fragments. After that, he continuously coughed up blood, protracted purulent sputum, had to visit many places but still had no results.

The piece of pork bone stuck in the man’s lung for 20 years is difficult to detect

Recently, he coughed up more blood, so he went to Ho Chi Minh City to visit a large hospital. The chest X-ray showed a post-obstructive pneumonia, and the CT scan detected a foreign object with a lot of light. The doctors performed endoscopy, 2 times but unsuccessfully and directed the patient to Cho Ray Hospital.

Here, the doctors discovered a piece of bone embedded in the right bronchus, the shape was not determined, the sharp tip was not visible, so they had to probe until the 4th movement to successfully pick up the 5x7cm foreign body.

According to MSc Pham Thi Van Thanh, Department of Endoscopy – Cho Ray Hospital, the position of the bone fragment is very special, hidden behind the heart shadow, so a straight chest x-ray could not be detected. For many years, the patient often had to take antibiotics and anti-inflammatory every time he coughed up blood.

“The most difficult thing is that the bone has been in the lungs for 20 years, so there is a lot of granulation tissue, sharp pieces that go deep into the bronchial wall. The risk of bone plugging into the arteries or not to control bleeding during endoscopy. It is also the oldest forgotten foreign body case recorded at the hospital” – Dr. Thanh informed.