Hyderabad: KIMS Doctors Remove Pen Cap Stuck in Man’s Lungs for 21 Years

Hyderabad: The 26-year-old man from Karimnagar suddenly began experiencing persistent cough and unexplained weight loss. His condition was worsening over the last ten days, making him difficult to fall asleep.

Turns out, it was being caused by a pen cap that he had accidentally swallowed as a child. Doctors at the KIMS Hospital here removed it using only a procedure and medications, and avoiding surgery, a process that took three hours.

When he reported at the hospital, doctors conducted a CT scan and found a lump-like structure inside his lungs. “We initially assumed it was an obstruction causing his persistent cough. However, during the procedure, we discovered that it was actually a pen cap lodged inside,” explained Dr Shubhakar Nadella, clinical and interventional pulmonologist.

Midway through the procedure, doctors called his elder brother and asked if the patient had ever swallowed anything as a child. That’s when he recalled that, at the age of five, he had accidentally swallowed a pen cap. At that time, he was taken to a doctor, who conducted an examination but found nothing abnormal, assuming that the foreign object had naturally passed out of the body.

“The procedure to remove the pen cap took nearly three hours. Using a flexible bronchoscopy, we carefully removed the tissue buildup, lymph nodes, and muscle formations around the object. Once the surrounding area was cleared, we extracted the pen cap. The prolonged presence of a foreign body had caused lung damage, but we managed to restore the affected area with antibiotic treatment. The patient has now fully recovered," said Dr Nadella.

“If the patient had delayed further, the lung tissue would have been completely damaged, requiring surgical removal of the affected section. Fortunately, we identified the issue in time and treated it with medication,” he said.