Even though barium sulphate aspiration during upper gastrointestinal examination is a well-known phenomenon, complication such as long-term lung injury and death may still occur. This may depend upon the concentration, amount, anatomy, or certain predisposing factors.
A year-old woman who had a barium swallow to screen for foreign body in esophagus. Chest radiographs demonstrated massive barium sulphate depositions in her trachea and inferior lobe of right lung. A chest x-ray was done that revealed massive barium sulphate depositions in her trachea and lower lobe of right lung.
As the patient did not have further complaints, she requested a transfer to West China Hospital of Sichuan University, the hospital being near her residence, for further treatment. She eventually recovered and was discharged after 1 week. There were 23 articles 22 English and 1 Chinese with 17 men and 11 women included in the study. When performing an upper gastrointestinal examination with barium sulphate, careful consideration of concentration and amount of barium sulphate and that of risk factors should be undertaken so as to avoid life-threatening aspiration.
Upper gastrointestinal examination with barium sulphate swallow is a widely used investigative technique all over the world. It does not need any justification for the importance of its role in the diagnosis of diseases of the upper gastrointestinal tract such as foreign body in esophagus, esophageal cancer, achalasia, diverticulum, and many more. Generally regarded as a safe examination technique in our clinical practice, rare cases of aspiration of barium sulphate during upper gastrointestinal examination have been observed that has led to complication and even death.
In this article, we present a case of barium sulphate aspiration during upper gastrointestinal examination. This study was approved by the institutional review board of Suining Central Hospital with waiver of patient informed consent, as the data were available in electronic medical records of our hospital.
