Objective: To compare the diagnosis and therapeutic between chest computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction and esophagus barium swallow in esophagus foreign body.
Method: retrospective analyze one hundred and thirty six patients who suffered from esophagus foreign body in our hospital, 97 cases using esophagus barium swallow, 17 cases using chest computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction, 15 cases using both.
Result: The patients who showed positive of esophagus foreign body in esophagus barium swallow or chest computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction, 91.8% (89/97) cases or 88.2% (15/17) cases found esophagus foreign bodies finally. All cases successfully took out the esophagus foreign bodies only through one operation which used chest computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction as primary examination, while only 91.0% for those used esophagus barium swallow as primary examination.
Conclusion: Both chest computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction and esophagus barium swallow showed high diagnostic efficiency on esophagus foreign body. Chest computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction had advantages in patients with one of following conditions: (1) esophagus foreign body located in the middle of the esophagus, especially complicated with esophagus perforation; (2) with fever, high white blood count, presence of abscess surrounding the esophagus was suspected; (3) with dyspnea; (4) with a history of esophagus foreign body longer than 5 days; (5) younger than 6 years old.