Disc Battery Impaction in the Oesophagus

The recent growing popularity of electronic miniature toys has made disc battery ingestion increasingly common. The impaction of these miniature toys can result in a range of complications such as minor oesophageal alkali burns, tracheo-oesophageal and aorto-oesophageal fistula. A case report in which an eleven month old boy swallowed a foreign body-a disc battery is presented. Occasional retching was observed with no respiratory distress upon arrival at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, United Kingdom. Even though he was irritable, systemic examination did not reveal any obvious abnormality. The slightly-eroded battery with surrounding black debris was eventually removed. On the chest radiograph, the battery looked similar to coins which are more commonly ingested and could be easily mistaken for coins with dire consequences. The chest radiograph revealed the battery as a circular radio-opaque shadow with a peripheral double rim. It is important for medical practitioners to recognise this fact and be able to identify a battery from a coin which has a similar shape but a single rim since the history of the foreign body swallowed may be as unclear as it was in this case.