• Chinnusamy Palanivelu, Muthukumaran Rangarajan, Ramakrishnan Parthasarathi, and Palaniswamy Senthilnathan.
• GEM Hospital, Ramnathapuram, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
• Surg Laparosc Endosc Percutan Tech. 2008 Jun 1; 18 (3): 325-8.

BackgroundThe esophagus is a common site for foreign bodies (FBs) because of areas of physiologic narrowing. Dentures pose special problems, especially if they are impacted. We present a case of a "smiling" foreign body in the proximal esophagus.Case ReportThe patient was an 80-year-old man with a history of dysphagia and swallowed dentures. Thoracoscopic removal was performed successfully as an endoscopic removal had failed and the patient had an uneventful postoperative recovery. He was discharged on the seventh postoperative day.DiscussionCoins are the most commonly ingested FBs. Swallowing of dentures is found mostly in elderly patients. If endoscopic removal is not possible, then a minimally invasive surgery is an alternative. Swallowing of dentures is rare, and its thoracoscopic removal has not been reported so far. Using thoracoscopy, all the benefits of a minimally invasive surgery can be used.ConclusionsMinimally invasive techniques have been found to be very useful in the removal of intraluminal FBs, especially when conservative measures fail. Prevention of such incidents should be emphasized.

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