Penetrating injuries to the oropharynx.

A review was made of 12 cases of penetrating injuries to the oropharynx seen at Musashino Red Cross Hospital during the period from 1984 to 1988, and their records were compared with those of past cases with similar injuries reported in a survey for the period between 1949 and 1959. Most of the patients were children under the age of four and were injured when they fell with a sharp-edged object in the mouth. Penetrating injuries to the oropharynx occasionally cause severe complications, including retropharyngeal abscess and mediastinitis. This type of injury should be called a 'pencil injury'.