Child Swallows Mickey Mouse – The Mickey Mouse Sign
History: Parent concerned child swallowed a “foreign body.” This is what I’ve termed a “pseudo-Mickey Mouse sign,” as there are many other real Mickey Mouse signs in radiology. For example, anencephaly (see below), progressive supranuclear palsy, outward flair of the iliac wings in Down Syndrome, radiotracer uptake in the pedicles on bone scan for Paget’s […]
Pediatric Foreign Body Ingestion – Battery
History: Child with reported swallowed foreign body. This is a case of a swallowed battery, which is an urgent finding that needs to be reported immediately to the referring clinician for endoscopic removal. Read about distinguishing batteries from other similar appearing foreign bodies such as coins here. Below is a penny in the esophagus.
Pediatric Foreign Body Ingestion
History: Male child with a parent worried he swallowed a coin. This is a case of pediatric foreign body ingestion. The most common pediatric foreign body ingestion is a coin, and in this case the coin was a penny. Pennies commonly lodge within the lower cervical esophagus, at the level of the thoracic inlet, as […]
Penetrating Chest Trauma – Knife in Chest
History: 50 year old male with self inflicted chest stab wound. Important findings to look for in the case of penetrating trauma to the chest include pneumothorax, pleural effusion (which indicates hemothorax), widened mediastinum indicating injury to the vascular pedicle, enlarged cardiac silhouette indicating hemopericardium, diaphragmatic injury, and pneumoperitoneum. Surprisingly, this patient did not have […]