Marble impaction in the nasopharynx following oral ingestion.

Foreign body ingestion is an important emergency occurring in childhood. In this article, we report the case of a 5-year-old girl with marble impaction in the nasopharynx, which had not been discovered by routine X-rays of the chest and abdomen at the time of ingestion. The patient presented 4 months after the event with typical symptoms of adenoid hypertrophy and sinusitis, and the diagnosis was established on the basis of a plain film of the nasopharynx. This rare situation is potentially dangerous, since the foreign body may descend and cause sudden airway obstruction. Therefore, in all cases with vanishing foreign bodies in the aerodigestive system, nasopharyngeal impaction and its fatal consequences should be kept in mind and endoscopic examination of the region should be considered.