Elsevier

Clinical Radiology

Volume 44, Issue 2, August 1991, Pages 104-107
Clinical Radiology

Original Paper
The radio-opacity of fishbones — Species variation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-9260(05)80506-9Get rights and content

Plain radiographs are often taken to localize fishbones which lodge in the oropharynx and hypopharynx, but which are not seen on clinical examination. Fishbones which are thus revealed can then be removed by endoscopy.

For a lateral neck radiograph to be useful in excluding a fishbone when mirror examination is difficult or fails to reveal a foreign body, it is important to known which types of fishbone are radio-opaque. We used a pig's neck preparation to simulate a human neck to determine the radio-opacity of the bones of 14 different species of fish eaten in the British Isles. We conclude that only the bones from cod, haddock, cole fish, gurnard, lemon sole, monk fish, grey mullet and red snapper are well seen by soft tissue radiographic techniques.

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    The supine plain abdominal radiograph demonstrated signs of small bowel obstruction but do not always shows a radiopaque foreign body or pneumoperitoneum. This finding is not surprising because for example fish bones have variable radio-opacity depending on the fish species; in general, the foreign bodies are minimally radiopaque and can rarely be detected on plain films, especially if they are masse by coexistent inflammatory tissue, fluid or abscesses [32,33]. Moreover, signs of pneumoperitoneum are not usually observed in plain films because impaction of the foreign body into the intestinal wall is gradual, allowing the perforation site to seal with omentum or adjacent loops and limiting the amount of gas or fluid in the peritoneal cavity.

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