Doctors at KIMS Hospital, Hyderabad, successfully removed a pen cap that had been lodged in the lungs of a 26-year-old man from Karimnagar for over two decades. The patient, who had been experiencing persistent cough and unexplained weight loss, sought medical attention only after his condition worsened significantly over the last 10 days, making it difficult for him to sleep.
According to Dr. Shubhakar Nadella, Consultant Clinical and Interventional Pulmonologist at KIMS Hospital, told IANS that a CT scan initially suggested the presence of an obstruction in the lungs. However, during the procedure, doctors discovered that the cause of his distress was actually a pen cap lodged inside his lungs.
“Midway through the procedure, we called in his elder brother and asked if he had ever swallowed anything as a child. That’s when he recalled that, at the age of five, he had accidentally swallowed a pen cap. At that time, he was taken to a doctor, who conducted an examination but found nothing abnormal, assuming that the foreign object had naturally passed out of the body,” explained the doctor, as per the report.
The removal procedure lasted nearly three hours and was conducted using flexible bronchoscopy. The doctors had to first clear the tissue buildup, lymph nodes, and muscle formations that had grown around the foreign object before successfully extracting it.
“The prolonged presence of a foreign body had caused lung damage, but we managed to restore the affected area with antibiotic treatment. The patient has now fully recovered,” said Dr Nadella.
Dr Nadella emphasised the dangers of leaving foreign objects inside the body for an extended period, as per a report on The Hindu.
“If the patient had delayed medical treatment further, the lung tissue would have been completely damaged, requiring surgical removal of the affected section,” he warned.
