A 29-month-old boy has esophageal burns due to swallowing a button battery.

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Due to the carelessness and negligence of adults and the curiosity of young children, many children have swallowed dangerous foreign objects. Recently, doctors from the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department and the Endoscopy Unit – International Pediatric Center, Hai Phong International Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital received a case of a child swallowing a button battery. Fortunately, after removing the foreign object, the child was not severely affected in terms of health.

The patient D.P.H, 29 months old from Thuy Nguyen district, Hai Phong, was brought to the International Pediatric Center, Hai Phong International Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital after the family discovered that the child had swallowed a foreign object.

Immediately upon receiving the child, the doctors quickly conducted an examination and an X-ray, which revealed that the child had a round foreign object lodged in the cervical esophagus. The Ear, Nose, and Throat Department and the Endoscopy Unit collaborated to perform an endoscopy to remove the foreign object from the child. The team successfully extracted a button battery with a diameter of 2cm. The location where the battery was lodged had caused corrosion, necrosis, and burns to the esophagus.

Button battery foreign body in the esophagus is a critical emergency in the field of Otolaryngology as it can cause severe complications affecting life or serious sequelae if the foreign body remains in the esophagus for too long. Unlike other inorganic foreign bodies, when a button battery gets stuck in the esophagus, it can lead to a series of complications such as burns, ulcers, and gradual necrosis of the layers of the esophageal wall, leading to esophageal perforation, damage to the esophageal blood vessels, and may result in esophageal stricture later on. The mechanism causing rapid and severe damage from a button battery is due to the fact that when the battery is lodged in the esophagus, it remains active, and an alkalization phenomenon occurs at the negative pole, leading to chemical burns in the esophagus. Additionally, the esophagus is further damaged due to metal poisoning and other chemicals leaking from the battery. The extent of esophageal damage depends on the size of the foreign body, the newness of the foreign body, and the time taken to retrieve the foreign body. Studies have shown that the duration of the button battery foreign body remaining for just 30 minutes or more can cause mucosal damage at the site of the foreign body. Therefore, as soon as parents detect that their child has a foreign body, they need to quickly take the child to a medical facility for timely intervention.Before that, the Ear, Nose, and Throat department also successfully received and treated a 6-year-old patient who inserted a button battery into their nose. The nasal mucosa at the site of the foreign body quickly became burned and necrotic. After removing the foreign body and treating the injured area, the patient stabilized and was discharged from the hospital.

Through these two cases, the doctor warns parents: Young children are often active and curious about objects around them, especially those who are not aware of the harm and danger of these objects when inserted into the nose, aspirated into the lungs, or swallowed into the digestive tract. Therefore, parents and teachers should always keep children within their sight, remain vigilant to prevent children from playing with toys that pose hidden dangers, especially button batteries… to avoid unfortunate risks that may occur.

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