Fishbone stuck in the throat is an ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) Emergency and you should see a doctor (GP, A&E doctor or an ENT Specialist) as soon as possible. There are some red flags that would warrant an urgent or immediate review by a doctor:
- Severe sore throat on swallowing
- Coughing or vomiting blood
- Chest pain on swallowing
- Fever
- Choking on large or multiple fish bones
For accidental ingestion of small bones, you can sometimes try to cough it out gently. However, never attempt to dig out a fishbone stuck in your throat with your fingers. This risks the bone getting pushed deeper down the throat (into your food pipe), causing a cut in your throat or worse, become embedded (buried) within the tissues of your throat.
Some doctors recommend swallowing rice or bananas to try to push the fishbone down into the food pipe. In general, I do not recommend this, especially with big bones. This can cause more injuries to your throat region or result in the fishbone migrating and getting stuck elsewhere (possibly in the food pipe). Although rare, fishbones stuck in the throat or food pipe can sometimes lead to dangerous complications such as infections, perforation of the food pipe and trauma to a nearby blood vessel.
Common sites where fish bones are stuck in your throat include your tonsils and the back part of your tongue (tongue base). Fishbones stuck in these regions can usually be easily removed in the outpatient clinic by a trained doctor with the right equipment (usually A&E doctors, ENT Specialists and some GPs).
For a fishbone that is stuck lower down in the food pipe, it needs to be removed under general anaesthesia (with the patient asleep). The bone is first located by passing a long metal hollow tube (known as a rigid oesophagoscope) down to the level of the impacted fishbone. It is then disimpacted and removed using a long forceps.
I would strongly suggest a visit to a doctor for any patient who has persistent symptom/s (e.g. feeling of something stuck in the throat or painful swallowing) after choking on a fishbone.
