Successful Localization of Intraoral Foreign Body with C-arm Fluoroscopy

Abstract

During surgical procedures, unexpected material, including surgical instruments and tissue segments, may get lost in the surgicalfield. Most of these should be immediately removed to prevent further complications, such as vital organ irritation, infection,and inflammatory pseudo-tumor formation. However, it is not always easy to define the exact location of the foreign body,especially if the item is very small and/or it is embedded in the soft tissue of the head and neck region. Intraoperativereal-time radiological imaging with C-arm fluoroscopy can be useful to trace the three-dimensional location of small andembedded foreign bodies in the oral and maxillofacial area. We describe an unusual case of an embedded micro-screwin the intrinsic tongue muscle that had been dropped into the sublingual space during a lower alveolar bone graft procedure. The lost foreign body was accurately identified with C-arm fluoroscopy and safely removed without any further complications.