Urethral foreign body

Case contributed by Maulik S Patel
Diagnosis certain

Presentation

A child inserted a rice-grain into the vaginal region a few hours before the presentation.

Patient Data

Age: 3 years
Gender: Female
ultrasound

There is an oblong echogenic focus in the distal urethra measuring about 7 mm in the length. The urinarry bladder is normal without any intraluminal echogenic focus. Both kidneys are normal. There is no free fluid in the peritoneal cavity.

US of the a sample rice-grain

ultrasound

It is an echogenic oblong focus of about 8 mm in length. It shows a thin echogenic outer 'cortex'. The central part is echogenic surrounded by a thin hypoechoic/anechoic rim which deep to the 'cortex'.

Case Discussion

A mother was cleaning rice grains while her child inserted one of the grains into the vaginal region. Ultrasound shows an echogenic foreign body in the distal urethra which shows a similar echopattern as a sample rice grain brought by the mother.

The foreign body was removed cystoscopically.

There are thin arc-like bands in the images of the urinary bladder and the right kidney. They showed movement in the real-time scan. These are electrical interference artifacts. There was no probe malfunction in this case as the rest of the images do not show artifacts.

How to use cases

You can use Radiopaedia cases in a variety of ways to help you learn and teach.

Creating your own cases is easy.