Hyderabad doctors remove vitamin B-complex tablet lodged in COPD patient’s airway

Doctors at STAR Hospitals in Hyderabad removed a vitamin B-complex tablet and its cover lodged in the right main bronchus of a 75-year-old COPD patient. The foreign body had caused air trapping, worsening symptoms and an associated respiratory infection

Hyderabad: A 75-year-old man suffering from COPD, breathlessness and cough received a new lease of life after doctors at STAR Hospitals discovered and removed a vitamin tablet with its cover lodged in his airway.

The elderly man initially presented with persistent shortness of breath, chest discomfort and cough with sputum. He had already been treated elsewhere for what was believed to be an acute exacerbation of COPD. However, his symptoms continued, prompting further evaluation by Dr. Peddi Srikanth, Clinical and Interventional Pulmonology specialist at STAR Hospitals, Nanakramguda.

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A chest CT scan revealed a 14 × 8 mm foreign body — a vitamin B-complex tablet with its cover — in the right main bronchus, one of the major air passages leading to the lung. The obstruction extended towards the right upper lobe bronchus and was causing air trapping in the right lung, a press release said.

The patient was diagnosed with an acute exacerbation of COPD with low oxygen levels. His sputum culture also showed Enterobacter cloacae, indicating an associated infection, it said.

He was initially stabilised with antibiotics, nebulisation and supportive treatment. Once his condition was suitable for intervention, Dr. Srikanth and his team performed a bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia — a procedure that allows doctors to look directly into the breathing passages.

The bronchoscopy revealed the foreign body in the right main bronchus. It was a B-complex tablet with its cover, which had inadvertently entered the airway and remained lodged there.

The foreign body was successfully removed, and samples were collected for microbiological evaluation. As the patient’s condition improved during his hospital stay, he was discharged.