A toddler has swallowed a coin-sized disc battery lodged in the oesophagus. What is the appropriate action?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. Emergency removal
- Step 1: Button batteries cause severe burns within hours through electrical current. Step 2. An oesophageal button battery is an emergency needing endoscopic removal. Answer: Emergency removal. Why not the others: Waiting for passage allows tissue necrosis. Laxatives do not remove it. Symptoms may be absent until serious injury has happened.
Practise more Ear, nose and throat.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed UKMLA Applied Knowledge Test (MSRA-style single best answer) mock tests.
More Ear, nose and throat questions
- A 30-year-old has a spontaneous nosebleed from the anterior nose. What first-aid advice is correct?
- A 40-year-old develops sudden hearing loss in one ear over a day, with a sensorineural pattern on tuning fork testing. What should be done?
- A patient has brief episodes of spinning vertigo on turning in bed, lasting under a minute, with no hearing loss. A Dix-Hallpike manoeuvre r…
- A patient has recurrent attacks of vertigo lasting several hours with tinnitus, aural fullness and fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss. W…
- A young adult has a severe sore throat, trismus, a muffled voice and a swollen soft palate with uvular deviation. What is the likely diagnos…
- A tuning fork test in a patient shows a negative Rinne in the left ear and a Weber that lateralises to the left. What is the interpretation?