Button battery ingestion in children: a role for angiography?

Excerpt

A 15-month 8.2-kg girl presented to the emergency room with an insidious history of progressive drooling and not eating following ingestion of a button battery two days previously. She was alert with bilaterally clear breath sounds and was hemodynamically stable. A chest radiograph revealed a button battery lodged in the esophagus at the level of the tracheal carina. As we had previously experienced catastrophic bleeding with batteries lodged in the esophagus below the thoracic inlet, she was brought to the cardiac catheterization laboratory for endoscopic button battery removal. Following induction of anesthesia and tracheal intubation, vascular access (femoral vein and artery) was secured. The cardiac surgery team, perfusion equipment, and a primed cardiopulmonary bypass machine were present in the room. …